Photo of the Month
Excerpted from the Guardian of London – 12.30.2018
Nancy Pelosi was perched on the end of a sofa in the Oval Office when the balance of power in Donald Trump’s Washington decisively shifted in her favour.
Watching this Series on Netflix in German with Subtitles. European drama is often so much more involved politically and culturally.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.16.2017
It’s a declaration of love to the exalted lifestyle of Berlin of the 1920s. Director Tom Tykwer, who has already worked on historical films such as “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2006), felt strongly about this: “The story is set in a city going through a cultural explosion, an abrupt decline of moral standards and complete upheaval. Back then, different artists from all over came together, and simply came up with something radically new.”
The TV series “Babylon Berlin” features all the well-documented excesses of the Weimar Republic: wild dance scenes, bitter poverty and glamorous wealth, explicit sex scenes in nightclubs and the noisy threat of violence by the up-and-coming Nazis.
Filmmaker Tom Tykwer was joined by colleagues Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten to direct the series, which has two seasons, and a total of 16 episodes. Together, they developed the screenplay, as well as the series’ cleverly interwoven story lines. “Babylon Berlin” is the most costly TV series ever produced in Germany, and one of the best.
Gereon Rath, a young detective from Cologne who has been ordered to Berlin on a secret mission, is also shocked by the night life in the capital — but he is soon infected by the city’s pulsating energy. As if sucked into a massive maelstrom, he plunges into the realm of the criminals who cross his path, fascinated by the world of nightclubs and vaudeville hows.
The poverty of the proletariat, the luxuries of the wealthy – these conflicting worlds clash in the TV series.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.28.2018
Christopher Isherwood’s 1939 novel was described by George Orwell as “brilliant sketches of a society in decay.
Moreover, the economic conditions were terrible. Even Isherwood was aware of this: the sexual liberation of the time was much more about people being unemployed and having nothing else to sell but their bodies. Prostitution, both homosexual and heterosexual, and often practiced by minors, is indeed another feature of the period.
Isherwood moved to Berlin in 1929, at the age of 25. What he saw here, together with the people he met, inspired some of his best-known fiction works, as well as an important part of his autobiographical writing. His literary approach was that of an observer, a foreign witness of the time. “I am a camera,” he wrote in Goodbye to Berlin.
In 1966, Broadway also gave birth to a musical adaption of Serwhood’s novel: Cabaret. The hit production depicting nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub went on to inspire the 1972 Oscar-winning film starring Liza Minnelli (top picture).
That audience was fascinated by the spirit of the German capital then, or better said, by Isherwood’s accounts of it. Berlin was not just another city in Europe. The Weimar Republic “was a time of anxiety, but also a time for hedonism, sexual liberties and artistic experimentation.”
Weimar Berlin was indeed known to be a place that broke the social conventions of its epoch. Many women questioned gender roles and some of them defied patriarchal traditions by becoming economically independent from men. The cabaret environment also created room for sexual minorities to express themselves in a relatively freer way. Many gay and lesbian-targeted establishments opened and survived during those years, even though sexual intercourse between males was criminalized under Paragraph 175.
Before Nazism put an end to this oasis of modernity, Isherwood was seduced by this city and its creatures, which he immortalized in his books.
In fact, the public interest Weimar Berlin is growing thanks to different cultural works set in the city during that politically turbulent and socially transgressor period.
A popular TV series, Babylinon Berlin, was later produced based on these works. Its two first seasons were picked up by Netflix, bringing Weimar into living rooms all over the world.
A current exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn also revisits the cinema of the Weimar Republic. Shown here: a still from Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”
A Little Light News to Cut Through the Usual Daily Events
Deutsche Welle 12.27.2018
A woman has filed a police complaint alleging she was assaulted by a hairstylist after her hair was cut too short, DPA news agency reported.
The 34-year-old woman went to a hair salon in Wittenberge in Brandenburg State and showed the stylist a picture of her desired hair cut.
Read more: Man pepper sprays hairdresser after bad haircut
According to the customer, her hair was cut much shorter than she had requested.
The hairdresser then tried to correct the mistake with hair extensions.
After the procedure, the customer then complained of a headache and filed a police complaint.
The case is being investigated, a police spokesperson said.
My thoughts Exactly
Excerpted from TPM – 12.26.2018
Outgoing Republican Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) on Wednesday warned of the dangers of accepting the term “fake news” and suggested that Trump’s presidency could eventually lead to the emergence of a “Hitler-like character.”
My comments in the Wall Street Journal regarding the Trumpdown 12.25.2018
Only in Amerika. A total loser TV Star obtains Three Million fewer votes and becomes President. Hate to say it but this is the End Game for the dysfunctional political system set forth in 1789. Don’t be upset Americans. It was all inevitable. Deal with it.
Chesa Boudin – SF Deputy Public Defender in SF Chronicle – 12.25.2018
Excerpted from The Atlantic – Sophie Gilbert 11.3.2018
Homecoming, Amazon’s new dramatic series starring Julia Roberts, is pure Hitchcock. In one scene, a Department of Defense investigator, Thomas Carrasco (Shea Whigham), runs down a staircase that’s shot from above, shown from a skewed, helter-skelter perspective that makes it seem like Carrasco is a human ball bearing tilting his way into the center of a labyrinth. The scene plays out over a swooping score of strings and brass so redolent of mid-20th-century thrillers that you half expect Tippi Hedren to be waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
But Homecoming is also Steven Soderbergh, between its tendency to introduce episodes with sound first, its jarring use of alternating aspect ratios and split screens, and its heady, brittle state of paranoia.
The result is a television series that’s frequently breathtaking. Each frame of Homecoming feels meaningful, and most feel at least vaguely familiar. But it’s a curious way to approach telling a story that was first told in podcast form, without any visuals at all.
Roberts plays Heidi, the lead administrator of a program called Homecoming Transitional Support Center, which she tells Walter (Stephan James) is a “safe space” for him to process his military experiences and re-familiarize himself with civilian life. Heidi’s job includes weekly sessions with the Homecoming residents and sporadic phone calls with her boss, Colin (Bobby Cannavale), a buffoonish shark of a corporate middle manager who praises Heidi by saying “fist bump” out loud.
As Carrasco, Whigham (Boardwalk Empire) is the kind of G-man who’s usually the bad guy, with a starchy, ironed short-sleeved shirt, short haircut, and spectacles that clip together at the front. But he’s one of the most compelling characters in the series, fully aware of his paper-pushing irrelevance but fiercely committed to doing the right thing anyway. Carrasco’s scenes also feel the most explicitly nostalgic, anchoring the character in a Twilight Zoneaesthetic with his 1960s haircut and his surreal experiences.
Roberts gives the most striking performance, flattening her natural charisma and absorbing her character’s feelings until she’s almost unrecognizable. Past Heidi is poised but clearly introverted; Future Heidi is totally deflated, biting her inner lip so intently that her mouth forms a permanent line. In one scene, Heidi gets a makeover at the mall, giving viewers a glimpse of Julia Roberts, megastar and Lancôme spokesmodel—and the contrast is so disconcerting that it’s a relief when Heidi awkwardly wipes the makeup off. Roberts almost never utilizes her infamous smile, and in the fleeting moments when she does, it’s to signal that Heidi is putting on an act.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.24.2018
A spokeswoman for the US Supreme Court said late on Sunday that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was up and working as she recovered from cancer surgery. Ginsburg, 85, is still at a New York City hospital and no date has been set for her return to Washington.
The news that Ginsburg is doing better will likely come as a relief to Democrats in Washington and progressives across the US, who worry that if anything serious happens to Ginsburg, President Donald Trump will be able to appoint a third Supreme Court justice in just one term. As these are lifetime appointments, a third Trump nominee could swing the court towards arch-conservatism for decades.
On Friday, Ginsburg underwent surgery to remove cancerous nodes from one of her lungs. Afterwards, her doctor said “there was no evidence of any remaining disease.”
From her hospital bed, Ginsburg cast a decisive vote blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to stop anyone who crosses the US border illegally from claiming asylum. Despite this, Trump took to Twitter to wish her a speedy recovery, as did her legions of supporters.
Supreme Court star
Ginsburg is known for her tenacity, and has not missed a single day of oral arguments in her 25 years at the court, even after suffering a previous cancer scare and a broken rib.
Only the second female justice ever to serve on the court, she has achieved a kind of star status that is uncommon amongst Supreme Court justices. This year she was the subject of an award-winning documentary and a fictionalized biopic starring Felicity Jones.
But at 85 she is also the oldest member of the Supreme Court.
Lee's Perspective 