Live at the "Wild at Heart" in Kreuzberg.

From The Ministry of Silly Walks...

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Salon.com posted 279 photographs and 19 videos from the United States Army's internal investigation that "record a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious Iraqi prison. The files make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable." More at Salon.com...

Salon.com: The Videos..

"Ein neuer Verdacht auf Spielmanipulationen in der 2. Liga und den Regionalligen. DFB-Chef Zwanziger hofft, dass wenigstens die Bundesliga sauber bleibt. Allerdings: Die Wahrheit sieht höchstwahrscheinlich nicht so rosig aus! Denn nach Plusminus-Recherchen ist die Bundesliga wohl längst betroffen – und selbst ein Nationalspieler soll laut Insider-Informationen, die der Redaktion vorliegen, mit der so genannten Wettmafia zusammenarbeiten."

Mehr bei PlusMinus...

"Zukünftig soll es nur noch 225 EUR statt 345 EUR ALG-II für Hartz-IV geben. Arbeitslosengeld II soll für Nichterwerbstätige auf Asylstatus gesenkt werden. (Pressemitteilung des Erwerbslosen-Forum-Deutschland)" Mehr bei indymedia...

Ab demnächst in der Sanderstr. 2, Berlin, Neu-Kölln. Nicht einfach nur noch eine "Mathilda"!

Ganz großes Kino! Keine Sozial-Romantik oder was man sonst so erwartet. Herr Buck kommt auf den Punk und hat bis in die kleinste Nebenrolle hervorragend besetzt. Tatsächlich ein ganz hervorragender Film, der nicht weiter kommentiert werden muss. So leben wir halt bei uns im Kiez...! Volle Punktzahl!

Mitten im hippen Neukölln. Guter Laden!

A Jim Henson-directed 1966 ad for Wilson’s Meats staring Muppets Scoop and Skip.

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"Es sind die ekelhaften Geldriecher, die Vollidioten ohne eigenen Geschmack und Stil, ohne Skrupel und ohne Hemmungen, die mir gerade gehörig auf den Wecker gehen und die uns allen hier mit ihren Anrufen wertvolle Zeit stehlen. Es sind die Medien-Zyniker, die für ein paar PageImpressions mehr einen „Text zum Durchklicken“ posten. Die so tun, als würden sie die Band „toll“ und „zärtlich“ finden, während sie aus weit abgründigeren Gründen lachen als es die meisten anderen tun. Denn sie werden den Jungs erzählen, wie toll sie sind, wie gut. Sie werden ihnen Hoffnungen machen, die, wenn überhaupt, nur kurzfristig erfüllt werden können. Und hinter ihrem Rücken werden sie sie auslachen und sich die Hände reiben, dass sie „die Ersten“ waren. Dass sie das „Potential erkannt“ haben. Sie werden sie vorführen wie einen Zirkusfreak, ausquetschen wie eine Zitrone und sie danach in die Ecke schmeißen und sie werden auch noch stolz auf ihre armselige Leistung sein, sie, die noch nie etwas Eigenes kreiert haben, sondern immer nur Trittbrettfahrer waren." Mehr...

Plot Outline: While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote (Jones) develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.

Toby Jones .... Truman Capote Sandra Bullock .... Harper Lee Daniel Craig .... Perry Smith Gwyneth Paltrow .... Peggy Lee Sigourney Weaver .... Babe Paley Jeff Daniels .... Alvin Dewey Isabella Rossellini .... Gloria Guinness

IMDB

Cool!!! They also have bloopers, commercials etc.

Very good documentary about german cannibal Armin Meiwes.

"Single man meets radical male masochist on the Internet. On their first date, the masochist offers up his penis as main course in a romantic dinner for two. After some teething problems over the best way to prepare the food, the two men enjoy a meal of garnished genitals. Satiated, and feeling woozy, the masochist is led upstairs to the bathroom, where he is left to bleed to death. Hours later, our host pops in to see how his date is doing, and finishes him off with a knife to the throat. He then butchers the body and barbecues the meat.

Even as fiction, this extreme tale of human weirdness would be difficult to stomach. So how do we respond when two middle-aged computer engineers turn this incredulous plot into jaw-dropping fact? Two words: shock and awe. Just when you thought you'd heard it all, along comes a German cannibal, Armin Meiwes, and his willing victim, Bernd-Juergen Brandes, to rewrite the book of bizarre human behaviour. Rarely has a criminal investigation aroused such ghoulish curiosity or raised such difficult questions about the dark places that the human mind can go."

Torrent

More about the film and cannibal-links at Channel 4...

The Man Who Ate His Lover director/screenplay: Srik Narayanan Germany/UK 2004, colour language: German; English subtitles production: Mentorn Films runtime: 60 min

It's not easy getting some attention as a band...

"Nachdem in Halberstadt die Drohung der NPD den Landrat Henning Rühe dazu brachte, einem Antifa-Soli-Konzert von Konstantin Wecker und "Strom und Wasser" die Genehmigung zu versagen, enthob sich ein Sturm der Entrüstung. Der stellvertretende Landrat Hans-Dieter Sturm meinte auf die Frage, warum Wecker in Jena in einer Schule auftreten könnte, Thüringen sei eben Thüringen, Sachsen-Anhalt eben Sachsen-Anhalt. Auch er sollte sich geirrt haben." Halberstadt ist überall...

Ayana und Darius

Ein Film von Oliver Hardt, D 2005, 55 min. "Black Deutschland" ist eine intime Studie über das Denken und Fühlen einer gar nicht so kleinen Minderheit, über schwarze Deutsche und Schwarze in Deutschland.

VINCENT: Als ich nach Deutschland kam und deutsch lernte, da hieß es, Neger bedeutet schwarze Person. Das war soweit ok. Ich habe im Wörterbuch nachgeschaut und tatsächlich bedeutete Neger schwarze Person. Aber wenn du dann auf der Strasse hörst: Nee, das mach ich nicht für dich, ich bin doch nicht dein Neger, dann fängst du an nachzudenken.

Mit Darius James, Sam Meffire, Vincent Mewanu, Tyron Ricketts, Noah Sow, Michael Basden, Ayana Jackson, Bernie Wilmot u.a. Erstausstrahlung am 24. Januar 2006 auf arte

16.03.2006 | 17:00 | ACUD-Kino Berlin

Screening im Rahmen des Filmfestivals globale 06; im Anschluss Diskussion mit Oliver Hardt und Noah Sow

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Great show at the Bassy Club last night, kids! Get a taste of THE hot new duo from Berlin!

Video 1 (4 min 22 s)

Video 2 (5 min 9s)

"Lost Alma" is Henrik Stahlhut from Copenhagen. I saw him play with a friend at the really hard to find Bassy Club last night and they have two more shows coming up, tonight and tomorrow (see below). Reminds me a lot of Home of the Lame. The debut-cd will come out in a short time and you can download the five songs from the demo "You can't stop the silence" at Lost Alma online.

Here is a little cellphone-video. The sound isn't that bad!

LOST ALMA live in Berlin:

Tue. 14.03 Berlin, at Focus Pocus, The Hotel Bar

Wen. 15.03 Berlin, at Cafe Rosa

Julius Marx was one of the greatest comedians of all time and perhaps the most imitated. But, unfortunately, Groucho's last years were anything but funny. Comicwriter Mark Evanier about Groucho's sad last years

Evanier also wrote a touching story about "the boys": Mr. Laurel and Mr Hardy

By the way, Laurel and Hardy, a great new dvd-collection coming up!

"I'm the kind of author who likes to hang out in Adolf Hitler's home town with the High Priestess of Weird. (...) I like to imagine the future of computer games as being something like the Steve Jackson Games bust by the Secret Service, only in this case what they were busting wouldn't have been a mistake, it would have been something actually quite seriously inexplicable and possibly even a genuine cultural threat.... Something of the sort may come from virtual reality. I rather imagine something like an LSD backlash occuring there; something along the lines of: "Hey we have something here that can really seriously boost your imagination!" "Well, Mr Developer, I'm afraid we here in the Food Drug and Software Administration don't really approve of that." That could happen. I think there are some visionary computer police around who are seriously interested in that prospect, they see it as a very promising growing market for law enforcement, it's kind of their version of a golden vaporware."

RECOMMENDED READING: Bruce Sterling - Game conference speech: "The Wonderful Power of Storytelling" (Computer Game Developers Conference, March 1991, San Jose CA)

Quote from time.com: It has often been noted that if Henry Ford were to come back today, he would wonder why no one had come up with a better idea than the internal combustion engine. A similar thought may occur to any visitor to a movie shoot. Dozens, maybe hundreds of technicians adjust the lights, apply the makeup and dress the set, much the way it was done almost 100 years ago. And as in D.W. Griffith's day, the film still runs through a camera, then is processed, reproduced many times and sent to theaters.

The addiction to doing things that way baffles Lucas. "Do you still use a typewriter?" he asks a TIME movie critic. "Do you go to a library and consult books for most of your research? Is your story set in type, letter by letter? No. Your business takes advantage of technological advances. Why shouldn't my business?"

Interesting interview at time.com...

"Please God, Just One More Bubble!" I like their attitude.

"Last month, the Motion Picture Association of America announced one of its boldest sorties yet against online piracy: a barrage of seven federal lawsuits against some of the highest-profile BitTorrent sites, Usenet hosts and peer-to-peer services. Among the targets: isoHunt, TorrentSpy and eDonkey.

But, as always, one prominent site is missing from the movie industry's announcement and it happens to be the simplest and best-known source of traded movies -- along with pirated video games, music, software, audio books, television broadcasts and nearly any other form of media imaginable. The site is called The Pirate Bay, and it's operated by a crew of intrepid Swedes who revel in tormenting the content industries."

Story about the problems with Sweden's copyright law at Wired

Too geeky for me, but it seems to work.

11 ways to backup your del.icio.us bookmarks

Alan Moore, that bearded hippie from England who thinks he's a "magician" wont shut up. Uhhh, the eccentrical Englisman living in his own "magical" sphere has a problem with those nasty, nasty movie-people again. That's so lame, that's so pathetic, that's so 1962 and you just don't get it. You had your 15 minutes in 1986. You're history by now.

You're just a comic writer and nobody has ever heard of you outside the world of comics. You're writing genre-fiction for a minority of idiots who think that a new version of "Aquaman" could be great if only they could get YOU to write it. Why don't you write a real book for a change? But no more of that crappy poetry please! It's almost as bad as the films of your magikal brother Kenneth Anger.

And what is your problem with "V"? Didn't you read the contract? So, just stop all that whining. You've been crying enough after that horrible movie "League of extraordinary Gentlemen" came out. It's getting boring and it's not like you wrote "War & Peace" or the bible. Most of your stuff after "Watchmen" was pure trash anyway. ("Supreme"? You gotta be kidding! Or the other one about, well, superheroes...?) And they will have to change little things when they turn your stuff into movies all the time, you know? Right, you don't watch movies and you don't have a telephone. But didn't you get a lot of money anyway?

Quote: Mr. Lloyd, the illustrator of "V for Vendetta," also found it difficult to sympathize with Mr. Moore's protests. When he and Mr. Moore sold their film rights to the graphic novel, Mr. Lloyd said: "We didn't do it innocently. Neither myself nor Alan thought we were signing it over to a board of trustees who would look after it like it was the Dead Sea Scrolls." (New York Times)

Meanwhile there is a lot of talk on the net about "V for Vendetta" going on. Revolutionary, terrorist, superhero or none of the above?

Here are some reviews:

• MTV
• news.scotsman.com
• Newsweek
• The New Yorker

"Virtual China is an exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China. It is also the focus of the 2006 Asia Focus research program at the Institute for the Future, a small nonprofit technology forecasting group in Palo Alto, California."