This was part of some school art project, a performance of sorts. The woman walked around this chalk circle for 30 minutes.

Guys. The end is nigh … Unless the revolution starts now. No wait. It should have started yesterday! … There I go again, falling into my pessimistic outlook.

But really, is it already too late to save the world?
We can only speculate, only time will tell.
At any rate, profound change needs to happen and fast, now, yesterday, or it will certainly be too late.

So what do I think is wrong? What needs to change?

Well, where do I start? We managed to create such a mess on this planet, that it’s quite difficult to decide where to begin.

We are the 99 %

The deregulated financial market has gone out of hand years ago. It is a miracle, that it has not collapsed yet. The gap between the super rich and the poor has increased to perverse levels. The greed of some of the super rich seems to know no limits.

Any economy that declares certain companies “too big too fail” will sooner or later be in real trouble. At that point the power shifts from the state to the corporations and we no longer live in a democracy. The super rich and their companies hold all governmental bodies by the balls. Democracy has turned into a de facto oligarchy.

While most of the super rich stay in the background and influence politics through lobbies and campaign support, some of them get openly involved in politics. In Switzerland, just as an example, one of the richest guys in the country, also runs and probably pretty much finances – we don’t know for sure, since there is no obligation for transparency – the Swiss People’s Party, running on a populist and xenophobic agenda that is about as right wing as it can get before turning brown. His main goals, deregulation and social cuts, typical neo con fair, thinly disguised underneath the immigration issues and xenophobia that he uses to scare and mobilize the masses. Who profits from his politics? The rich and super rich? Yet who supports Blocher and his party in Switzerland? The farmers and socially disadvantaged. It is so frustrating to watch and rarely so obvious, but in Switzerland money really does buy political influence.

In Switzerland 1% of the population own 59 % of the wealth. That is an even more extreme ratio than say in Germany or the US. This ratio is as extreme as the one in Columbia. The problem in this country, the “poor” people here are still pretty well off, unemployment is low, social services function, the wealth somehow seems to trickle down. But even worse, we are all collectively responsible for this situation. In a sense all Swiss citizens profit from big business and the banks, these same banks that generate their blood money by offering tax haven and banking secret to the super rich from around the world. Name one of the recently toppled dictators who didn’t have a Swiss bank account … The Swiss are collectively caught in this scheme, which leads to reactions from shame to cynical boasting.

Meanwhile a mixture of guilt and outrage over deregulation and social cuts has finally brought a timid group of people here in Switzerland to join the international occupy movement in protest.

But will we be able to reach a critical mass and motivate any real change? It’s late in the game … We are already in extra time.

We are a cry from the heart of the World

Even more grave, and of course totally related to corporate greed is our environmental situation. Our planet is overpopulated and it’s not looking as if population growth will slow down anytime soon – sauf catastrophe.

Human population was able to grow out of proportion, because of medical advances and industrial agriculture. Big agriculture relies on fertilizers made from and produced with fossil fuels as well as a distribution system that relies on oil. Most areas where Big Agriculture grows corn and wheat would no longer yield anything, unless more and stronger fertilizer keeps getting added. The top soil is pretty much depleted, should we stop to add these fertilizers in these areas, we would be left with a pile of dust that would blow away in the wind.

Meanwhile many scientists claim, that we have already moved beyond Peak Oil, meaning our oil reserves will start to run out soon, with the immediate effect that fuel will get more expensive. Fossil fuels also contribute heavily to global warming and other potential ecological catastrophes. We look at overpopulation made possible by a resource about to be depleted, and at the same time this is just one of the mechanisms, that might well lead to the demise of our species.

We poison our food with chemical agents to preserve it, make it look better, fluffy, shiny, white or what not. On the markets we speculate on food, pushing the price of corn and wheat to record levels, which in turn contributes in large part to world hunger. Of the 7 billion people on this planet 1 billion are poor, which means they can experience catastrophic famine at any moment.

As if these potential disasters were not grave enough add to these nuclear waste, water scarcity, and the many more toxic and poisonous materials humans have produced and discarded into landfills, and all this why? To satisfy our greedy consumerist lifestyle …

Nature is pretty much fucked. We should have started to unfuck it years ago. The timid attempts to protect nature that were initiated over these last years just did not go far enough. Is there still time to save the planet?

This is the beginning of the beginning

The past few years I have been compulsively checking my Twitter feed for messages announcing impending doom. I had pretty much lost all hope that we can turn this mess around. Ask me then, I would have answered, it is too late, we have let things go too far.

But instead last winter and spring I read about the arab spring, then spain, and in summer I found #occupywallstreet, and all this has given me hope. I might project too much on it, but here finally are people who are saying enough is enough and doing so in a non-violent, creative, constructive ways. It took off in the US and when it came to Switzerland naturally I joined. It’s been fun and constructive, but I keep wondering why there are not more people getting involved.

I am grateful to see the occupy movement taking a stand and I fully support it. But how can we affect real change? We are looking at such profound changes that need to happen, many of us, even some protesters, will have trouble to accept them. Consumerism is everywhere and some of the stuff money buys is so fucking cool.

Create the Change You wish to see in the World

The deregulated global economy? It needs to collapse.
Corporations effectively running our governments? That needs to stop.
Or their greed will simply kill us all.
But every single one of us need to be willing to make huge sacrifices individually and change our ways.

In my own life I have tried to change to a very careful and respectful life style. But there is only so much I can do, and, if I am perfectly honest, so much I am willing to do. I grow my own vegetables, eat only organic vegetarian food, use public transport, no longer own a car, we even moved to a so called ecological development, that turned out to be one huge disappointment, but that’s another story. But so much is wrong with all the things i currently do, much of it does serve not much more of a purpose, than to appease my own guilt. For instance, I can only grow food because I got lucky and happen to live in the small area on the earth, where that is even possible, right climate, enough water, good topsoil. Move me to central Spain or Africa, and my project goes bust. In other words, I am privileged on so many levels. And then I still love my gadgets, my plasma TV and my hip clothing way too much. Just last week I bought some winter boots “Made in China”, knowingly. Yes. i felt guilty, but I still bought them.

The annoying demand for demands

Some people will read this and say “duh”. Others will reject it with violent denial. Most won’t ever read it, since I am just one small voice on the huge internetz adding to the noise. Even I wonder, why I would suddenly feel the need to state the obvious here?

Everybody, the press and everyone else, keeps pointing out that the Occupy Movement does not have a list of clear demands. We are confronted with a ferocious demand for demands. But look at the state the world is in, look at all the problems we have to address, so much is going wrong. If anything, we have too many demands. And as naive as this may sound, we mainly just want a better world.

And this quote might also explain it:

you can’t just say, we demand a world of peace, demands have to be specific. [yet] anything that people can articulate can only be articulated within the language of the current political discourse. and that entire political discourse is already too small. and that’s why making explicit demands kind of reduces the movement and takes the heart out of it. that’s a real paradox, but I think the movement understands that [source: the revolution is love]

Here’s how I would say it: If humanity is running straight into the open knife, do we need to stop humanity from running or do we have to take down the knife? Probably both, and that is why this task feels sooooo enormous… It feels overwhelming. I am confused and I don’t have the solution. But I am willing and exited to start the process and to look into possible ways, and to learn how to find consensus and interact with others in a non-violent, democratic way. Let the change we want to see in the world be the guideline of how we go about it.

Only tribes will survive

Food, Energy and Finance are the three main areas where huge shifts need to happen fast. However we could get there faster by starting at the other end, by building tribes, by organizing ourselves in our neighborhoods, to grow our own food, share our resources, our fridge space, our kitchens, to reduce our collective carbon footprint, etc. asf.

Maybe the shit really does need to hit the fan before things start to change. Some of the solutions we now develop might well have to be for post-apocalyptic times. It might well have to be the end of the nation state as we know it and the dawn of a new way to organize humans into smaller, localized communities and tribes. “Small is beautiful”. “Bolo’Bolo”. Localized, regional economies and live-work units interwoven with each other, in touch with nature and socially responsible must replace the nation state.

Yesterday we went to Zurich, where well over 1000 people held a friendly, creative occupy protest at Paradeplatz right smack in the center of Zurich’s financial district. While elsewhere huge numbers showed up on this global day of protest (Rome 200’000, New York 50’000, Santiago de Chile 30’000, Madrid 15’000, Berlin 10’000) and in some places things escalated and got violent (Rome), the event in Zurich was totally peaceful and a true inspiration. The police tolerated the protest. From what i read on Twitter some 100 people stayed overnight and today there will be a brunch and hopefully the protest can grow, and then jump to other cities in Switzerland (Bern, plz). I am not sure sure when I can join next time, but in spirit I am there with you guys. Thank you all for the great fun.

Here are some more of my photos on flickr.

occupyParadePlatz Flickr-Pool

How to get involved:

the official website seems to be: occupyparadeplatz.ch, check out the latest there.

here’s Etherpad to offer your skills and help

i wouldn’t say brilliant, but this is quite good…

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

that freakin wikileaks dump

Troubled Wikileaks Moves To Pirate Party Domain – "After being cut off by its nameserver provider EveryDNS, Wikileaks has moved to a domain registered by Pirate Party Switzerland." proud to be a member.

OMG! WikiLeaks hit home – "wikileaks just released 23 billion teenager texts…"

WikiLeaks cables: Live Q&A with Julian Assange – "The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, will be live online from 1pm today to answer readers' questions about the release of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables"

online video guy killed the …

My mum's reaction to a giant snow cock i built in the front garden – "i built a massive cock made of snow in my front garden then filmed my mums reaction to it ahahahah" [via b3ta]

New York City – these guys stuck a camera onto a rc heli and flew it over nyc. amazing. my new hobby? nah, still too lame.

Glide 2 – "Both glides were filmed by sticking a – relatively cheap – digital camera out of the window of a train as it arrived at a station. The ‘trick’ is the camera collects images at a rate of 210 per second – but the film is played back at 30 frames per second." love the effect.

Logitech Revue with Google TV – Kevin Bacon – warning: commercial. but funny. kevin bacon plays his own biggest fan…

Nude Protest: Airport Body Scanners in Germany – "members of the Pirate Party in Germany organized a fleshmob of people who stripped down to their skivvies last Sunday and converged on the Berlin-Tegal airport."

Making-Of sicherstes Fahrradschloss – "The lock wraps around a lamp post. Attach the bicycle to it, and then the user activates a remote-controlled motor. The lock climbs up the lamp post"

PLASTIC STATE OF MIND – Black Friday Parody – "BP's oil spill – Almost like we did it – We use one million grocery-bags – every single minute"

schmooze and abuse

rule #34 – If it exists there IS porn of it – seems to be true, i tried pants. [via b3ta]

A Small iOS 4 on iPad Annoyance – "I’m not gonna bitch about the bloody screen orientation lock switch (i’ve done so already). Instead i’m going to complain about the german language onscreen keyboard in iOS 4 on iPad." this is exactly the rant i wanted to write, but i was too lazy. thanks christoph!

Snowmen. – "First snow today." well, a few days ago now

Ten great years – it's always amazing to remember that this band only lasted 10 years…

Trip-tastic – "An Art Basel Miami Beach fairgoer was so enthralled with a Robert Rauschenberg painting at Faurschou (A4) that he failed to spot the pile of Ai Weiwei’s ceramic sunflower seeds sitting in front of the painting, kicking the tiny seeds across the floor." he might have been trippin… like.

The SoundCloud iPhone App – "As mentioned in today’s update, the iPhone app now also supports the Record feature and will allow you to capture and share any type of sound while you’re on the move."

24 ways – web design and development articles and tutorials for advent – "24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks. Each day throughout December we publish a daily dose of web design and development goodness to bring you all a little Christmas cheer." [via endgadgeted]

Reeder for Mac Public Beta – i love reeder on my iPad, so let's take this for a test-spin fo sho

Hexstatic present TRAILER TRAX – “FREE FREE FREE!!! including all the bonus remixes + Lord Fader's remix video + the pdf album booklet containing a link to your free 60 min Trailer Trax iPod movie.” boahh. is it xmas already?

Mark Sinckler’s mural slammed as “angelic tribute” to terrorists – "Artist Mark Sinckler has been savaged by the conservative press for his mural “Age of Shiva“, which is currently on display at Banksy’s Marks & Stencils pop-up gallery. The piece depicts the aftermath of the July 7, 2005 bus bombing in London, with angels circling the wreckage and the victims ascending into the heavens."

How to Make Google Translate Beatbox – "One enterprising redditor named harrichr found that it is possible to make Google Translate’s audio function generate a beatbox sound. Here’s the process." it really really really works.

How to use AirPrint with any printer – "If you own a Mac and a printer, you can use AirPrint. In fact, your printer doesn’t even have to be wireless."

I Wish This Was – "New Orleans is full of vacant storefronts and people who need things. My neighborhood is still without a full-service grocery store. So I made these fill-in-the-blank stickers to give us an easy tool to voice what we want where we want it. Fill them out and put them on abandoned buildings and beyond. The stickers are custom vinyl and can be easily removed without damaging property."

Hermann Josef Hack = World Climate Refugee Camp – german artist hermann josef hack built a "World Climate Refugee Camp" in munich.

lead pencil studio: non-sign II – "‘non-sign II’ is an installation by seattle based art collective lead pencil studio located at the canada-US border near vancouver. the sculpture is made from small stainless steel rods that are assembled together to create the negative space of a billboard. while most billboards draw attention away from the landscape ‘non-sign II’ frames the landscape, focusing attention back on it. "

‘Struggling’ Screenwriter Sued By Twentieth Century Fox For $12 Million – "Described online as a struggling screenwriter who sells flowers to make ends meet, P.J. McIlvaine is now facing the biggest struggle of her life. After creating a free online library of Hollywood movie scripts to assist other screenwriters, she incurred the wrath of Twentieth Century Fox."

The internet's cyber radicals: heroes of the web changing the world – "A generation of political activists have been transformed by new tools developed on the internet. Here, a leading net commentator profiles seven young radicals from around the world"

schwitz focus [german only shizzle]

Abstimmungskater: Fremdschämen in Basel – "Nach der Annahme der "Ausschaffungs-Initiative": Spinnt eigentlich die ­ganze Schweiz? Nein, in den Städten und unter Kulturschaffenden herrscht Vernunft"

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

online video killed the …

US Cop Stops German Tourist For Speeding – cop threatens german tourist he caught speeding, tells him he will be thrown to jail and his ass will be hurting for months.

Tenso – "Internet Scientist Patrick analyzes the composition, origins and variations of the Tenso meme."

Tevez Fists Rio in Sky HD – in super slow motion!

Für eine andere Welt – "Nie zuvor war der Geist der Revolte so stark und so verbreitet. Allein im Jahr 2009 wurden weltweit 524 Aufstände gezählt, und fast ein Drittel davon fand in Europa statt"

Out of Sight – "This is a graduation Production made by three students graduated from the National Taiwan University of Arts."

Trumer Beer Machine – "we were able to recreate the brewing process in a new way" orly

Most Overused Line In Cinema: You Look Like Shit – stalone takes the cake, "*nervous laugh* in a ponytail"

Cat & Gator – "Cat protects people from vicious hungry alligator"

Coughs and Sneezes (1945) – "A government information film on how to avoid snotting all over your fellow citizens."

schmooze and abuse

Would You Drink Bacon Soda? – " Don't worry, it's vegetarian"

Warm halloumi and chicory with pomegranate and walnut recipe – "Salty cheese and bitter chicory combine with walnuts and sweet pomegranate to create a dish to remember" i feel like south park stan’s dad randy when i read ottolenghi’s recipes.

4chan Censors Itself – "The notorious message board 4chan's young founder has fashioned himself as a champion of extreme free speech on the Internet. But blatant censorship is occurring on 4chan right now, after its users attacked a target too close to home."

"If you touch my junk" TSA-themed cross-stitch by Steotch.com – the swiss would say, if you touch my junk, i'll have you deported.

▷ DJ Food – The Sound of Mu(sic) – "A hoax KLF 'soundtrack' to a fictional film perpetrated by Strictly Kev (DJ Food) and Mr Trick via a fake KLF website back in 2005. Full story here: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=81711368&blogID=340111079&Mytoken=1546A5AE-1311-47" brilliant!

Why Don't We Finish More Video Games? – "With video games more expensive than ever, you would think that gamers would squeeze every last second of play out of them before moving on to the next adventure. But that's not always the case."

The real cost of free: a response – "Cory Doctorow and other advocates of giving work away for free as a promotional tool are defeatist about the future for creators" the cat fight continues…

Banksy Releases Packaging Designs For US DVD Release – "And for those who are asking, because of the incredible demand for it, the DVD extras do indeed include Thierry Guetta's LIFE REMOTE CONTROL (LAWYER’S EDIT)" yay

Tissot Reality – "Experience the Tissot Touch collection on your own wrist. All you need to activate is a webcam and the T wristband" right, so i stuck this on my wife’s biggest dildo, but it was half as funny than i thought…

How to Request a Refund on any iPhone App – "Wait… I want my money back?… is that even possible? Guess what folks, it sure is" just did that, gotta make them work a little for their moniz

South Park Sued for "Butt" Joke – "South Park producers are being sued, as the series is accused of ripping off a copyrighted music video. Remember What What (In the Butt)?""

GIRL TALK – ALL DAY – ILLEGAL ART – "This album is a free download. Girl Talk thanks all artists sampled. A full list will be posted in the future." best grab it on filesharing site as the illegal-art site seems overwhelmed.

Forks High School Students Suspended For Wearing Sex Pistols Shirts – "The next day, the students handed out Sex Pistols shirts to all that would wear them as a way of protesting what they felt was, at best, a lack of respect for a pioneering English punk band, or, at worst, a gross violation for their First Amendment rights.
It's not clear how many students were suspended. The school says around a dozen. The students say it was more like 25."

Secret papers reveal Nazis given 'safe haven' in US – "Agents from the Justice Department's Nazi-hunting Office of Special Investigations (OSI) found that war criminals "were indeed knowingly granted entry" to the US, even though government officials were aware of their pasts, the report concluded."

The ‘Path’ to Social Network Serenity Is Lined With 50 Friends
– "That led him to put a limit of fifty to one’s Path network, all of whom have consented to a reciprocal relationship. Thus posting on Path is not an act of broadcasting or self-promotion, but sharing a moment with someone who really knows you."

swiss focus

Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen – "San Keller beruft in der Kunst Halle ein «Exil-Parlament» ein, das sich aus 63 Künstlerinnen und Künstlern zusammensetzt und sich in drei Sitzungen mit den Traktanden befasst, die im St. Galler Stadtparlament zeitgleich behandelt werden. Das Exil-Parlament ist nicht nur während der Sitzungen für Besucher geöffnet, sondern auch zu den regulären Öffnungszeiten der Kunst Halle als Installation zugänglich. "

SVP: Wolf in der Schaf-Falle! – "SVP geht dem Juxtelefon auf den Leim. Rassimus. Nicht die Schafe, sondern die Menschen wollen wir rausschmeissen."

One year on the minaret ban still reverberates in Langenthal – "Twelve months after the vote, supporters of the minaret ban have announced plans to put up a memorial near the Muslim prayer hall, a building that at night looks more like a brightly-lit sports hall than a religious centre in an industrial zone on the edge of Langenthal." can we finally cut this part of switzerland out of the landscape?

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

At least not in the iPad App Muji to GO, which other than that i quite like by the way (not as much as the Muji Calendar app)

i must be one of the few people in switzerland, who feel ashamed at the way the swiss won their game against spain last night. they won, that’s good i guess, but how? they won playing extremely destructive football, 8 – 9 defensive men behind, and then going for counter atttacks. and even the goal they did create was very scrappy and not at all beautiful.

this is how inter milan won the champions league, or the greeks won the european championship in 2004. good for them, but sad for football.

let’s face it, this is a huge tournament and the stakes are huge. but if the northern koreans can almost deny the brazilians a win, and the swiss can even win against spain, things are just going the wrong way. switzerland has never won against spain yet, and for good reason. and that’s really ok. ours is a small country and a small league. the worldcup should have a different kind of beauty than winning games at all cost.

i think that there need to be rules that punish this type of tactics, destructive football takes all the fun out of “the beautiful game”. or it will get more and more boring.

rssart.cc

die schweizer medien rätslen über den young boys spieler ghezal. es fallen worte wie seltsam und unerklärlich, wenn sein plötzliches verschwinden anfangs dezember erwähnt wird.
mein erster gedanke zum thema, ghezal’s verschwinden erklärt sich mit dem seltsamen und unerklärlichen resultat der minarett abstimmung.

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

xmas

Mark Simpson – Fairytale of New York – “A bit of Christmas cheer and festive spirit ends in near disaster.” yes yes, xmas is one of the times of the year, during which i wish i could still drink alcohol, helas …

bytelove – lifestyle – i want everything on this page for xmas, especially the ice invaders ice tray and the periodic table shower curtain, kkthxbye.

handjob – or ok ok, maybe a handjob [via b3ta]

online video killed the …

Truth in Advertising – “a great story about how a marketing campaign is made.” [via b3ta]

Killing In The Climb – “Everyone is fighting over which is better – Joe from X Factor with The Climb, or Rage Against The Machine with Killing In The Name.”

Homeless Guy ‘Mustard’ Sings Radiohead’s Creep – “If there’s any homeless person who deserves a moment in the spotlight, a huge royalty check, or even just a warm place to sleep, it’s Mustard” fucking sign this guy already.

schmooze and abuse

Interview: At Climate Talks, Thom Yorke Calls for Pay-What-You-Owe Economy – “It’s not enough,” Yorke said of the UK’s proposed emissions cuts. “But the political pressure they’re feeling, that’s very obvious. Hopefully something will come from that in the next 24 hours.” yeh you, thom.

The Simpsons turns 20 today – "Twenty years ago today, the first full-length episode of The Simpsons — known as The "Christmas Special" — aired on television." and i remember it like it was yesterday.

Why are the Alps getting taller? – "The Alps grow because they swim in the Earths mantle. Mountains like the Matterhorn or the Zugspitze lose one meter of stone every 1000-2000 years" and to think we used to have this slogan “weg mit den alpen, freie sicht aufs mittelmeer!”, not a chance then.

FREE For All – "Viewed from the side, the structure looks like a forty-four-foot-long stringed instrument, but from the front, it clearly spells one evocative word: FREE." for some bloody reason i now have the horrible geaorge michael song stuck in my head, “freedom, freedom… You’ve gotta give for what you take…” oh brother.

Un-Facebook Yourself – "Sometimes, social networking is just a bit too social. If you're feeling vulnerable on Facebook, the web's biggest social hangout, you can easily take control over who can see your information."

Swiss Mountain House Rocks! – "this unusual house plan is the collaboration between the Netherlands architects at SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects. This underground home, located in the Swiss village of Vals, is set amidst a cluster of mountain houses and if you don’t look carefully you might miss it!" want! someone make me rich fast so i can build one.

Announcing bit.ly Pro – "Today we’re pleased to announce a new service: bit.ly Pro. The Pro service provides custom short URLs powered by bit.ly. Publishers and bloggers will be able to use their own short domain names to point to pages on their sites" thats a bit.ly pro. see what i did there?

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

online video killed the …

Cassetteboy – The Web for Beginners – “Something a bit different this time, not least because for once it’s totally legit.” more about the competition here: digital revolution short film competition

Beatles 3000 – “1000 years in the future, the legacy of John, Paul, Greg, and Scottie remains.” well, after all they invented the thumbs up sign, they really did.

Solution- We have the Technology – Energy Union 2009- Coldcut -v1 – a coldcut mix for their energy union project.

Ze Frank On America in Afghanistan Since 2001 – "With new U.S. troops heading to Afghanistan, Ze Frank takes an opportunity to radically oversimplify the last 8 years of the war."

schmooze and abuse

25 Hilarious WiFi Network Names – “Giving your WiFi network a funny or clever name is a great way to freak out your annoying neighbors without hiding in their bushes or peeping in their windows late at night.” hmmm, i do have a minor crush on one of my neighbors …

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell – … [via b3ta]

N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton: The Word Cloud – "One hundred years hence, when historians are trying to understand race relations in late century Los Angeles, they will refer to Straight Outta Compton to get to the reality behind the analysis — and it'll still sound fresh as fuck. Herewith: Straight Outta Compton, the word cloud:" fuck is big, of course. so is yo.

Google Chrome For Mac Is Here! – "The wait is over. Google Chrome for Mac is now available in beta. It’s still missing a few features that are in the Windows version (like support for extensions), but the browser is lickety-split and more-or-less stable."

Streaming will never stop downloading – "Far from being a cure for the industry's woes, substituting streams for downloads wastes bandwidth, reduces privacy and slows innovation"

The monster that is – World of Warcraft – "$1.2 billion a year in revenue; 16GB of your hard disk; billions of hours played; acres of news-print; a Sam Raimi-directed (Evil Dead 2, The Spider-man trilogy) movie in the works; a billion-dollar grey market in gold and items; an episode of South Park; therapists creating in-game characters for addiction counselling and an astonishing… 11 million players! And relax. WoW is just a game" with infographic

Bay Area artist "shopdrops" at IKEA – "On Black Friday, Michele Pred joined the throngs at the Emeryville IKEA, but she wasn't exactly shopping. Instead, the Berkeley artist slipped into the wall-art section and covertly placed copies of signed prints she had designed into the racks."

FA denies England will use Viagra to help players rise to World Cup occasion – "• No discussion with regard to Viagra, says FA • 'Medical staff conducting detailed research'" englands’ players always play hard anyway.

England football team offered Viagra for World Cup – "ENGLAND'S football team will be offered Viagra for next year's World Cup games in South Africa in an attempt to boost their performance … on the pitch." england’s players will be hard … erm .. to beat.

Cheyenne Cherry Ransacked Apartment, Then Cooked Cat in Oven – "But just to be a complete dick, the 14-year-old stuck Hernandez's cat in the oven and cranked it to 500 degrees." äs nümmmerli.

Everything you need to know about HTML5 – "What's new in HTML5 and what happened to XHTML2"

Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges – "Copenhagen is preparing for the climate change summit that will produce as much carbon dioxide as a town the size of Middlesbrough."

the minaret shame contd.

Swiss senator Dick Marty says minaret ban is "completely incomprehensible". – "Switzerland’s image as a country of human rights has been rocked by the ban on the construction of minarets, according to a Swiss member of the Council of Europe."

MINARETT-VERBOT: NICHT IN MEINEM NAMEN – "Die Entscheidung vom vergangenen Sonntag gegen den Bau von Minaretten hat weltweit Schocks und Missbilligung ausgelöst und dem Ruf der Schweiz als ein Land der Toleranz und des kulturellen Pluralismus empfindlichen Schaden zugefügt. Zeigen wir der Welt, dass wir dieses Verbot aufs schärfste verurteilen und dass die Schweizer Bevölkerung sich grundsätzlich entschlossen gegen Angstmache und Vorurteile stellt."

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

Ich schäme mich für das Resultat der Minarett-Initiative! – saturday 14:00 bundesplatz, bern. i’ll be there if my cold is gone.

jon stewart and john oliver making fun of it all

” Um auch noch die Letzen zur Abstimmung vom 29. November zu motivieren, werden wir am 19. November in allen grossen Bahnhofshallen eine Smartmob durchführen:

- Treffpunkt ist um 17.45 in der Bahnhofshalle
- Punkt 18.00 Uhr fallen wir alle zusammen auf den Boden, mitten in der Menge der Pendler, und bleiben dort während 4 Minuten wie tot liegen. Dies als Symbol für alle Menschen die durch Schweizer Waffen sterben, die wir aber nie zu Gesicht bekommen
- wichtig ist, dass alle möglichst rot angezogen sind -> visueller Effekt
- nach den 4 Minuten kann jeder wieder seine Weg gehen

Während dessen werden Flyer an Passanten verteilt, die über die Initiative und den Smartmob informieren.”

Smartmob für ein Ja zur Initiative “Exportverbot von Kriegsmaterial”

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

online video killed the …

Indian Beatles – "Some kinda weird bollywood beatles clones." a bit over-enthusiastic, maybe. [via b3ta]

'The Golden Age of Video' by Ricardo Autobahn – "'The Golden Age Of Video' is a promotional device for the forthcoming untitled Ricardo Autobahn album."

schmooze and abuse

A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families – "Hence, a survey. I asked fellow parents to donate their children for a few minutes, and name a selection of Lego pieces culled from the Lego parts store." i wonder if it the same differences exist in germanspeaking legoplaying families. [via b3ta]

Big Ben (big_ben_clock) on Twitter – "BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG BONG – about 1 hour ago from API" ;P

Why do we have an IMG element? – "On February 25, 1993, Marc Andreessen wrote: I’d like to propose a new, optional HTML tag: IMG Required argument is SRC="url"." that’s how. the answer to why is, because we like pretty pictures of kittens.

Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really) – "The Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation." one bird and a piece of bread can do that? we are soooo doomed. black hole incoming.

low gravity fail – cute astronaut animation.

The Twitter Times – "The Twitter Times is a real-time personalized newspaper generated from your Twitter account" sort of interesting.

Wu-Note Project – wu-tang clan covers redone as if they were blue note sleeves.

Scientists perform sex change operation on papaya – "Researchers help frustrated farmers by simplifying the complex sex life of this succulent fruit." wait a minute, fruit have sex organs? no way not to remember that next time i eat my daily apple.

Comedy Central orders the Onion TV pilot – "Comedy Central is teaming with satirical newspaper the Onion for a half-hour scripted comedy." sounds like a plan good for a few laughs.

Kerixep – very simple, very nice flash puzzle game, level 26 was toughest for me…

EMI Sues BlueBeat for Selling Beatles Tunes Online – "The entire catalog of stereo Beatles albums will soon be legitimately available in digital, albeit physical, form. Apple Corp. and EMI announced the pre-order availability of 30,000 16-GB Apple-shaped USB drives containing 14 albums in lossless 24-bit FLAC (better than CD quality) and 320 Kbps MP3 formats, 13 short documentary films about the albums, album art, “rare photos” and expanded liner notes, all accessible directly or through a Flash player that automatically loads on Macs and PCs. It’s quite a statement — especially the 24-bit depth of the lossless files, which allows more gradations between volume levels than standard 16-bit (CD-quality) audio files. The only catch — they cost $280. EMI and Apple Corp. plan to release the drives on Dec. 8." when beatles joins the digital “revolution”. i quite like the dongle idea.

anyone gotta bone for Paris? – they both go, yapp yapp yapp yapp yapp yapp…

World of Warcraft ordered to shut down in China again – "A Chinese government agency, the General Administration of Press and Publication, has once again revoked the permit required to operate the game." gold farmers should be happy about this.

Dutch hacker holds jailbroken iPhones "hostage" for €5 (Updated) – "One Dutch hacker managed to find and hack into jailbroken iPhones, though it seems the hacker was more interested in a few euros than malicious ends. However, the incident is another reminder that users of jailbroken iPhones need to be more vigilant about security." cheeky cunt.

Halloween 2009: Making Mario – "They returned home and one mustache later, the Mario brothers were cavorting on the front lawn." i resisted to post any halloween stuff, till luigi and mario were just too adorable.

swiss focus

Einladung zur Piratenversammlung vom 05. Dezember 2009 in Bern | Piratenpartei Schweiz – "Am 5. Dezember findet in Bern die erste ordentliche Piratenversammlung (PV) der Piratenpartei Schweiz statt. "

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

online video killed the …

miserable green git – "here's your guide how to to be green, selfish and win" [via b3ta]

HardTimes :: Art Hour – “call 1 800 our art errr …” saying this fast gives ze frank hard times

What is a browser? – "What is a browser? was the question we (Google) asked over 50 passersby of different ages and backgrounds in the Times Square in New York. Watch the many responses people came up with." wel, if google asks the question, it might be quite obvious why many say a browser is a search engine.

Super Keyboard Cat Bros. – he admits it was not the first to do this, but, "I do think I spent a great deal more time on mine, recreating the game play from scratch instead of using video capture from the game and the cat is a bit more "8-bit"."

schmooze and abuse

One shot: the littlest big billboard in Union Square – "the best little/big ad campaign we never knew existed in the heart of NYC's Union Square park." cute idea.

Eclectic Method Remixes the Future of Open Video – "Eclectic Method’s kinetic live shows splice music, film, TV and videogames into a body-rocking audiovisual concoction that gets clubbers hopping and synapses popping."

The Cheap Plastic Camera That Could: Lomo Turns 25 – "In Bangkok they’ll be wearing bows and fake tattoos. Food and drinks are promised in Tokyo and in Seoul there will be cake. Revelers in Hong Kong will drink shots of vodka while listening to Russian music and in New York the ’80s will return for an evening of karaoke."

Twittern mit Richie Hawtin – "Der Hawtin wieder. Hat voll den Technologie-Koller. Hat jetzt Twitter in sein Traktor Pro integriert. Damit alle, die nicht im Club mit dabei sein können und unbedingt wissen müssen, welcher geile Track das denn eben war, also der vor dem Klonk und nach dem Zisch." dj richie hawtin has started to publish his dj set playlists using traktor dj software and twitter.

Bobbie Johnson meets Douglas Rushkoff, who helped to shape the internet in the early 90s – "In the early 90s he helped to shape the internet. Now Douglas Rushkoff is back – with a plan to wrest control from our big corporations."

Nazi Petting Zoo / Der Streichelnazi – "But it's time to embrace history.
It's time to remember the feel-good days of 1938.
It's time to let our real feelings out!
It's time to hug the Nazi, Austria!
Finally!"

The Dawning of Internet Censorship in Germany – "Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government – a grand coalition between the German social democrats and conservative party – seems united in its decision: On Thursday the parliament is to vote on the erection of an internet censorship architecture."

Why Facebook Turned Down Millions To Give Away Vanity URLs For Free – "Facebook's new officeWe heard that instead of giving Vanity URLs away for free, like it did last weekend, Facebook originally planned to auction them off to the highest bidder."

the world is an apple – he did forget madagaskar. [via neatorama]

Mullets – a Worldwide Phenomenon – "Business in the front, party in the rear – the mullet is a hairstyle that is seen the world over." in switzerland mullets are called VoKuHiLa = vorne kurz hinten lang.

swiss shizzle

BDIII Book Announcement – “All good things are three! We are happy to post the 3rd BD book will hit the bookshelfs in October 2009, 10 years after the first one also published by Gestalten.”

«Resignation bedeutet den Tod auf Raten» – "«Tages-Anzeiger»-Reporter Jean-Martin Büttner hofft auf Aktionen seiner KollegInnen gegen die Massenentlassung, stellt ein gewisses Misstrauen des Verlags gegenüber der Redaktion fest und ist dennoch weiterhin mit Begeisterung Journalist."

Herzlich Willkommen | Piratenpartei Schweiz – "Gründungstreffen – Am Sonntag, 12. Juli 2009 wird die Piratenpartei Schweiz gegründet!" i might go, i might… or i might just join by sending an sms

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

online video killed the …

Free iPhone App – ze frank has invented a free iphone app…

Epic Mouse Trap Fail – "Cheap ass mouse traps… " or smart mice?

schmooze and abuse

Awkward Boners – "Awkward Boners – Because it happens to the best of us" it does, it does.

RiP: A Remix Manifesto – non-americans can watch the documentary here, with slightly annoying tasks given at the end of each chapter.

Ashton Cares – “I think we may have experienced the last generation of actors who can be disconnected from their audience.” yesh yesh, but from there to receiving a personal voice mail message from kushter is still a long shot. well, lets try: diss diss diss kushter! let’s see if he calls.

The Future Shock – "My name is Kolin Pope. I am the savior of the future. Like most with the title of savior, I never went out looking for it. No, adventure found me." a pretty amazing prank as told by the one who was getting pranked.

Bunkers
"»Bunkers (Switzerland)«, 1999-2004 by Leo Fabrizio." [via vvork]

How Gadgets Lose Their Magic – "As technological magic becomes routine, I wonder whether a visit to a preindustrial society might teach me more than it teaches them. The only thing more fascinating than our technology is the idea of getting along without it. Maybe the way to recapture the magic is to turn all that stuff off." so true.

Chuck Norris protects Split bakery – "Store bosses have seen off burglars by placing a life-sized photo of Hollywood action star Chuck Norris in the window." yes yes, and when the boogieman goes to bed he checks his closet to see if chuck norris is hiding.

Online IQ Test Is Really A Stupid Mobile Phone Download Scam – "Depending on your carrier and cell phone manufacturer, the mobile content may include ringtones, games, wallpapers, or fun text messages. This content will cost as much as $19.99 per month and will be sent to your cell." ah good, because of course i was tempted to compare my IQ with my facebook friends.

LIIP ad and poster – "Ad and poster design for LIIP, Agile Web Development, Fribourg, Bern, Zurich."

419 Scammer Gets Honest – "I'm guessing an angry recipient hacked her Yahoo! Mail account and sent out the second message to discredit her."

Apple v. EFF: The iPhone Jailbreaking Showdown – "Apple vigorously opposed authorizing jailbreaking, saying copyright protections is what gave birth to the iPhone, the 1 billion app sales, 50,000 app developers and 35,000 apps. The EFF vigorously urged the Copyright Office to authorize jailbreaking, which in this case is hacking the phone’s OS, and hence allowing consumers to run any app on the phone they want, including those not authorized by Apple."

Myst comes to the iPhone: which shows how far we've come – "Even so, that's a dramatic shift. In 16 years we've gone from a game that required an external, expensive piece of hardware, and external storage, which pushed the limits of systems, to something that can be done in the palm of your hand. There's Moore's Law for you"

How To Beat Myst on the iPhone in 5 Minutes – "If you're the type of person that just needs to see the end game, regardless if you've actually completed it. We have a quick how-to that allow you beat the game in just 5 minutes." mkay. i admit i don’t get why anyone would buy a game to then beat it in 5 minutes. but hey.

Life Inc – "I'm going to be posting most or perhaps all of my upcoming book, Life Inc: How the world became a corporation and how to take it back, over the next two weeks. I'll put the beginning of each excerpt here, along with a link to where you can read or download the rest. So, let's start at the beginning." a great read. can’t wait for the next chapters to get posted.

Trent Reznor rips Apple, rates smartphone OSes – "Android is cool, but nobody has an Android phone. Blackberry is OK but the hardware is inconsistent and WinMo straight-up sucks balls. If Apple doesn't get it together, we will most certainly make it available to the jailbreak community. I didn't invest in this app to see it languish on the sidelines from an idiotic policy while this tour is in full swing. " and the question remains, which celeb dissing apple will finally make apple rethink their arrogant policies?

Lego Torture Scenes Protest Media Censorship – "Flickr user Legofesto (who prefers to remain anonymous) was fed up with news outlets refusing to publish images depicting torture due to their graphic nature. So he recreated the images and first-hand accounts using Legos to protest what he saw as irresponsible censorship."

Wikipedia Founder Slams Wikipedia Art – "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales characterizes the project as “an alleged bit of performance art,” and the project creators, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern, as “trolls” “dedicated to vandalizing Wikipedia as a publicity stunt.” " oh come on, jimmy.

Artists turns her old Skoda Fabia into an 'invisible car' – "The University of Central Lancashire artist made the incredible optical illusion by spray painting a battered Skoda Fabia to match the car park and entrance to her art studio." [via neatorama]

world of warcrack corner

WoW Insider interviews Tom Chilton on Patch 3.1 and beyond – "As far as tri-spec goes, I hope not! From a design perspective, just because I still want to maintain as much integrity as I can regarding how having a spec and choosing what you're going to do is important." now that's just stupid. and arrogant. this is a MMO, let people decide.

swiss focus

Beschwerde gegen Software-Deal des Bundes – “Der Bund vergab einen Software-Auftrag von 42 Millionen ohne öffentliche Ausschreibung an Microsoft. Nun reichen etliche Firmen wegen dieses Vorgehens Beschwerde ein.” open source software companies complained that the swiss government has handed out a 42 million contract to microsoft with out there being an open competition.

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

teh glorious interweb as it got stuck in my camino tabs this past week – the edited version.

online video killed the …

Bigfoot Caught on Tape! Amazing Footage! – finally we have proof! Bigfoot exists!

Pantichrist Herb Medicine Commercial – "Here is a film that should promote our little Rock N Roll panty company but it's pretty wacked out and weird, so I don't know if this helps us sell anything." we somehow doubt it, but the video is fantastic.

osymyso blog: Week 18-Follow the Legs – "This week I have the honour to present to you a track from the forthcoming album Bunkerbusterwaldernuts and not only that, it's accompanied by a video that's been animated by the incredibly talented Rafianimates." Bunkerbusterwhat…? nice name, i guess. cool track anyway.

How to get up, eat breakfast and get ready for work in 5 mins! – "How to get up, dressed, brush teeth, prepare & eat breakfast, bind your tie in just 5 minutes!" japanese tv goodie.

schmooze and abuse

Mt. Holly Mayor's Office: Pan Handling Competition is Running Hot in Minneapolis – panhandler sporting a sign that reads: “Checks no longer accepted from the following people:" panhandler with a sense of humor.

Five Minutes to Kill (Yourself) 2 – flash game. the aim is to kill yourself in 5 minutes or less.

Guerilla der Kulturbewahrung – "Die französische Gruppe "Les Untergunther" restauriert bei illegalen, aufwendigen Nacht- und Nebelaktionen verwahrlostes Kulturgut" german only

Decorated swine flu surgical masks in Mexico – "Some Mexicans have reacted to the swine flu crisis with humour and creativity. A man wears a mask with a moustache drawn on it as he talks on his mobile phone in Mexico City" and more.

Public Ad Campaign – "New and old advertising takeovers"

Papergirl New – "Papergirl Nr. 4 steht vor der Tür!

 Dank allen Teilnehmern geht das Projekt jetzt schon ins vierte Jahr und wir möchten hiermit wieder alle herzlich einladen mitzumachen!
 Papergirl ist ein Kunstprojekt, bei dem im Stile amerikanischer Zeitungsjungs Kunstrollen vom Fahrrad aus an zufällige Passanten in den Straßen Berlins verteilt werden" german magazine gets distributed old school by paper boys and girls on bikes.

Why Google Wants You to Google Yourself – "The act of Googling oneself has become the digital age's premiere guilty pleasure — an activity enjoyed by all and admitted by few. The phenomenon has even been the subject of scholarly research. Last year, a team of Swiss and Australian social scientists published a study concluding that the practice of self-Googling (or "ego-surfing," as it's sometimes called) can partly be traced to a rise in narcissism in society, but that it is also an attempt by people to identify and shape their personal online "brand."" i succesfully re-branded myself, except it’s not showing up on google search yet??? why???

Swine Flu Fun Facts – "Naturally, then, I have spent the weekend geeking the hell out over this whole looming-threat-to-civilization thing. In between obsessive reading and some interviews conducted for National Geographic News, I've come up with a few tidbits of information I thought y'all might find as fascinating as I did." scientists have all the fun.

The BBC Rehashes MPAA Propaganda – "As a government owned corporation the BBC has a duty to educate, and be evenhanded in its dealings with subjects. Yet in a recent segment on their long-running ‘Film’ program, currently hosted by Jonathon Ross, the BBC ran a biased segment straight from the MPAA."

The Truth Will Set You Free – "Almost a year later, Levy’s article has still not seen the light of day, and it now appears that it may never be published. However, EnlightenNext’s responses to Levy’s questions represent an historic event of sorts, as they constitute its first official denial of the events described on this blog." i used to be involved with andrew cohen, and to this day have very high regards for him. but this new development of denying accusations by former students scares the hell out of me.

Dynamite Danger – "An explosives expert is mandatory on this demolition site. If an expert can't be found, a beginner crocheter will have to do." knitted dynamite. literally.

Torrent File Search Using Google Custom Search – "The intention of this site is to demonstrate the double standard that was exemplified in the recent Pirate Bay Trial. Sites such as Google offer much the same functionality as The Pirate Bay and other Bit Torrent sites but are not targeted by media conglomerates such as the IFPI as they have the political and legal clout to defend themselves unlike these small independent sites."

EU set to vote to remove neutrality from the net, give ISPs and govts the power to arbitrarily block site – "On May 5, thus in only two weeks, the politicians in Brussels will vote on a package of laws regulating the Internet in EU countries. This is the so-called telecoms package. If the lobbyists' and bureaucrats' version is adopted, ISPs will be able to arbitrarily block sites to their customers, and governments will be able to impose three-strikes measures without involving the judiciary."

swiss focus

SIX FREAKS UNDER – Grosse Halle Bern – "SIX FREAKS UNDER ist ein musikalisches, temporeiches und rasantes Stück, eine jenseitig düstere Geschichte, mit viel Witz und schwarzem Humor. Die Schauspieler, Musiker und Sänger des visuell und akustisch dichten, mechanischen Theaters, sind lebensgrosse Roboter, Puppen und Objekte. Sie sind mit Animatronik bestückt und werden zum Teil per Computer (MIDI) und zum Teil von Hand animiert. Die grossen Comicfiguren aus Alublech erzählen die Rückblenden der Geschichte." a performance with robots.

Naked Swiss hikers must cover up – "The tiny Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden has voted to prohibit the phenomenon of naked hiking. Anyone found wandering the Alps wearing nothing but a sturdy pair of hiking boots will now be fined." awwww, unfair.

'Ill' worker fired over Facebook – "A Swiss woman has lost her job after her employers spotted she was using the Facebook website when she had claimed to be too ill to use a computer." awww, even more unfair.

delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed – with all the typos.

the tracy emin retrospective starts tonite, here in bern of all places. should be fun.

all i can say about tracy emin, not knowing much at all about her back then, i had a huge involuntary errection, when visiting her show at the last biennale in venice. not sure why i felt the urge to share that, but hey, there you have it … ^^

franziska has posted this great photo of a snow sculpture, that two of her students have built a few weeks ago on the roof of the school, depicting switzerland’s most hilarious esoteric tv psychic, the unbelievable mika shiva (his website is always worth a visit for a good chuckle). the snow sculpture is more than 2 meters high, in other words it’s huge, and imo they did a really great job on his smile.

i recently went for a walk with my mum in bremgarten, the village near bern where i grew up. there we walked past this old graffiti by harald nägeli, one of his characteristic stickfigure drawings, who was known in the late 70′s and early 80′s as “der sprayer von zürich”. my mum remembered, that back then one of our neighbors hid nägeli in his house, when the heat was on in zürich and all over the media, trying to find this very public graffiti artist. harald nägeli, the compulsive artist that he was, couldn’t help himself but do some of his work in our hood ^^. my mum told me, that most other places his work had been removed, but this piece stays intact, albeit fading.

the exact adress of this piece is bündackerstrasse 120, bremgarten b. bern

as an aside, nägeli is only 5 years younger than my mother, and as such did not fit the proflie that people had of a graffiti artist.

find more information on the very interesting story of harald nägeli on wikipedia [in german only]

there are many reasons, why i have not been at a movie theater for ages, it must be three or four years at least, but the main reason would be people. seems like, at least here in switzerland, people go to the movies to do anything BUT to watch the movie. they go there to eat, to talk with their friends, to make out, to talk on the phone, to shoot up heroin … i dunno. they just go there, because it’s a dark place, where they can annoy the few others, who actually do want to watch the movie. i mean, sometimes it is like magic, when a whole theater full of dedicated movie watchers falls silent and gets wrapped into the action. but then usually some loud punk comes along, late, starts burping and munching and smelling up the place. or the bag ladies, seems like there is always some old fart, that starts rummaging through her plastic bags during the quiet scene.

the thing is, if you ask the loud people to please be quiet, rarely they just ignore you, but usually they will comply and proceed to find another way to annoy you. this being switzerland, the passive-aggressive capital of the world, it is not easy to communicate with people. often i remember movies not by their plots, but by the annoying people that we had in the theater. in that way narc will forever be linked to the two junkies, one of them made it clear to everyone, that he had seen the movie before and kept giving away the plot points, less to his buddy, who had dozed off, than to all of us in the room. classic. in fact, that must have been one of the last times i went.

but. while the movie theaters can’t do much about people’s behaviors, there are a few things that they could improve. one thing, that is extremely annoying are the previews and commercials you have to suffer through before the film starts. in france they found an easy solution to this. they communicate two starting times, one for previews/commercials, for those people who do like to watch them, and another when the actual movie starts. another very annoying thing in switzerland are the breaks. they will stop the movie somewhere in the middle to sell ice creams, show more commercials, give smokers a chance for a nicotine fix. quite a few films really suffer from such an interruption; mullholland drive, a david lynch movie!!!!, really fell apart for me, because of that stupid break. then they assign seats in swiss movie theaters, and what a stupid thing that is. they cluster everyone at the center, creating a totally unnatural seating pattern, and the customers, being swiss, they will actually insist on getting their assigned seat. i have observed many fights about this.

in short, usually there is no reason to go suffer in a movie theater, when i could enjoy the films in the quiet of my home. so usually i just wait till the movie gets shown on cable, released on dvd, or there are a few other options out there, i won’t mention here … ^^ (lately i have watched a few movies on my ipod touch. brilliant). but ok, it is also because there have not been that many must-see movies lately. however at the moment i am tempted to go see der baader meinhof komplex. do i dare? because there is always the risk that a perfectly decent movie goes to waste. remember narc. nah, i won’t go …