madhatter’s coffee.

Just seen at Annandale Street. Seems as if someone was a bit in a hurry tonight.

• Wortfeld: Planet unter Beobachtung
  Everyone ist observed, all the time, everywhere. This is not only about paranoia. It’s about externaly stored data storage.
  A film, cut together of pieces from the Prelinger Collection.
  (tags: art data-privacy politics subversive video)
• Eb Hu: Lalaland
  Just watch it.
  (tags: art video)

• Bundesarchiv: Picture database
  Yeah that’s exactly what I was looking for. Fuck the copyright!
  (tags: database pictures searchengine)
• pantoffelpunk: Der Akademikermangel
  Hmz. Nuff said.
  (tags: news pisa tuition-fees)
• Spreeblick: Bombenidee
  CENSORSHIP. For everyone.
  (tags: censorship fun stasi2.0)

Diharoe simply does not describe the way I’m actually feeling. I feel like durchfall. Which may connect to the fact that I have some. And I tell you… never has a loo been so far away.

Damn the pupils.

• CSSTYPE: web safe typography on screen for pixel perfectionists
  Mh. Nice little tools… I should start using it to complete the upcoming design for this blog.
  (tags: css design tech web)

• Nerdcore: Schuhtick
  I know – I have one.
  (tags: design)

• YouToube: Remi Nicole – Go Mr
  I seldom link videos. But this one is really lego. It’s eighties. It’s my childhood. It even makes you forget the boring harmonies ;o)
  (tags: music video)

• ROMSO Nachrichten-Suche
  Search Engine for news – with an additional timeline and an ordered and tagged overview of results – for lazy journalists.
  (tags: research media news)

Did someone notice that new category? No?

Anyways: there is a new one. Edi. For all those who dislike the other stuff (for example probably useless links on freaky internet content) and just want to know what goes on in Scotland’s supposed heart.

Staring me.

Sometimes you get the impression the Bildzeitung actually makes intense effords on stripping themselves bleak of trustworthiness. At least, when they publish reader’s comments like that one:

Recht hat sie, die Frau Herman! Wie war es denn damals im Dritten Reich? Die Mütter als Garantie für heile Familien, genau so wie auch der Bauernstand. Und heute? Scheidungskinder, Schulversager und Gammelfleisch. Damals unmöglich!

It’s easy to feel at home…. All you need is a bed, some nice people to talk to and a decent coup of coffee. That’s basically everything. Every additional bit is already luxus.

If you miss the people you’ll feel lonely. If you miss a place to sleep you’ll feel outcast. And if you’ll miss the coffee you’ll find that you need something to bridge the moments you don’t know what to do next.

If found a home: the Forest is were my folks are. My flat-sharing community is were my bed stands. And both places serve coffee.

Sometimes I’m really tempted to trust in fate. Finding the Forest was such a moment. I was looking for was a nice internet cafe. What I found is a fluctuating family. Sort of. “The Forest” is a student run cafe that sets up the infrastructure for a whole bunch of projects ranging from darkroom for amateur photographers to the free shop – an institution entitled to make people swapping stuff. They would put it differently, of course:

a volunteer run collectively owned free arts and events space masquerading as a veggie cafe.

But it’s not the stuff you can do at the Forest, it’s the people that are drawn to this place. Open minded, creative, mostly alternative, of all ages and often students. The Forest somehow seems to be a weird but nice mixture of all places that I chose as second homes: a bit of Stuttgart’s Uni-WG, the people resembling the folks I met in the Ping-Pong Bar in Kreuzberg, the Coffee as good as in the Kuenstler Cafe and the veggie-green experience of the Bio-Cafe at the FU.

My flats-sharing community is different, but not less kool. At the moment we are four Spanish and me as the only German teaching them English. And I’m learning Spanish. No, in fact Edu and me created a language learning tandem: from the beginning of October, I’m going to learn Spanish. In exchange Edu’ll get some of the lessons I prepared for my  pupils. And coming home really feels like belonging there. Especially when Victor’s at home. Victor is our chef de la cuisine. And a fucking good one. And when Victor’s at home the main subject we’re talking about is food. Valencian food. And Scotish beef. From Angus cattle.

It’s easy to be at home. All you need is a nice place and a cup of coffee.