1. The United States of America is too big to fail, or is it?
2. When a „cute“ girl on College Ave yells at me: „Cookies against Child Abuse!!!“, what am I supposed to say?
3. Is the Occupy Movement too shy to start a revolution, too aloof to get involved in politics, or both? Which course of action would you prefer? Do you remember the Occupy Movement?
4. Can you be a fan of portraits by both Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargeant?
5. Why is the only Republican contender for the nomination who has not yet had a major blackout also the one who receives the least support? Or did I miss something about Jon Huntsman?
6. Two years from now, college freshmen won’t have any memory of 9/11. How is that going to affect the „debate“?
7. Do you agree that even the way small-town America looks dilapidated can seem dated?
8. Does anyone have a greater reading voice than Toni Morisson?
9. Assuming you have recently been to a museum, you have friends, and you have a place of residence, consider the following: have you ever had a chance encounter with a friend in a museum in a city in which neither of you lived? Thank you, Eric!
10. What other questions do I have?

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Du schlank und rein wie eine flamme

Du wie der morgen zart und licht

Du blühend reis vom edlen stamme

Du wie ein quell geheim und schlicht

So beginnt das letzte Gedicht von Stefan George. Und da gibt es eine dunkle Seite, obwohl das Gedicht so hell ist und schön. Es ist kunstvoll gebaut und feiert einen schönen, vielleicht auch selbst gut gebauten Menschen. Er ist schlank (das kennen wir) und rein (das verwirrt uns). Auch die nächsten Zeilen sind eigenartig in ihrer Mischung aus Fremdem und Bekanntem. Die meisten von uns haben schon einmal einen zarten Morgen gesehen. Man genießt die klaren Stunden, wundert sich, dass es schon hell ist, wenn man mal besonders früh raus muss, und verspricht sich, das öfters zu tun und zu genießen. Aber dann vergisst man’s und muss von George an den Eindruck erinnert werden. „Geheim“ ist der Angesprochene, aber nicht weggesperrt oder kompliziert, keine Nuss, die man knacken muss, sondern unvertraut und doch nah, und „schlicht“. Nicht blöd, sondern ohne die Verwerfungen, die andere sich in der Welt von Rolle und Analyse einhandeln. Schlicht naiv? Das wäre eine böswillige Unterstellung, deren Urheber sich selbst zum Maßstab macht.

Das Du ist bei mir, es begleitet mich, es bedeutet mir etwas und regt mich an, und ich kann es spüren. Den Duft, das Atmen eines anderen Menschen wahrzunehmen, ist ein intimer Moment. Er gelingt nur, wenn man einander nah ist und wenn es sonst still ist. Wenige Menschen gestatten einander, sich so zu begegnen.

„Du bist mein wunsch und mein gedanke“. Hier klingt nun schon etwas Anderes an, was mit der dunklen Seite zu tun hat, von der ich sprach. „Ich atme dich mit jeder luft“, das sind einfache, schlichte Worte, die zeigen, wie Einklang herrscht zwischen Sprecher und Angesprochenem. „Ich küsse dich mit jedem duft“. Was bahnt sich hier an?

Da kommen eben Lukács, Grönemeyer und Toco ins Spiel. Und wie das geht, steht hier.

• Foto vom Konzert am 23. Juni 2011 im Wankdorf Stade de Suisse in Bern, von naturalbornstupid.

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1. Derek Walcott’s new collection of poetry, White Egrets. If you thought there was nothing new to say about the drizzle, read this. If you had lost faith in poetry, read Joshua Mehigan, and this.

2. The BBC’s new Sherlock Holmes series. High on local London flavour, gay innuendo, and quick thinking. Forget James Bond.

3. The trinity of late-night entertainment: the elephant of surprise, the margarine of error, and the sauce of entertainment.

4. The fact that someone in Berlin can yell “Hinsetzen, Fotze!” at a young woman who is blocking his view of a television screen at a WorldCup public viewing event and not get reprimanded.

5. Finance Minister Matthöfer’s retaliation (video at around 3:00) when he was attacked by the leader of the 68ers in a talk show.

6. A song about cloning beans, gnus — and you.

7. The following response: “First, you are drunk. Second, this is not a waltz; it is the Peruvian national anthem. And third, I am not a woman; I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima.” Read here what this was the response to.

8. Bach’s French Suite No. 2 in c minor. The opening Allemande is one of the most erotic pieces of music ever written …

9. … rivalled only by the beginning of Saint-Saens‘s second piano concerto.

10. And finally, watching someone dressed up as Lord Nelson walk across the cricket pitch outside the house. “History is now and England,” as they say.

PS: The book will come out in February. Stay tuned.

• Foto of the elephant of surprise by exfordy.

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super jib kidder 3000 vs. the squids is an unreleased concept album by the electronic music and video artist jib kidder. The rock opera score presents us with jib kidder as he’s captured in his garden palace and pulled down into a dystopic underwater world ruled by evil squids. jib kidder relies on his only weapon against the methamphetamine-pushing squids: a Casio SK-1 keyboard. Turns out that the SK-1 offers jib a special tool as he plans his attack: it has an internal microphone that records short samples of live sound.

jk is captured by the squids and forced to walk the plank. His powers of flight reveal themselves at the end of the plank, making it possible for jk to flee – but he returns to wage battle against his captors.

Is it the sounds squids high on meth make in real life, sampled and turned against them, that allows jib to succeed? Because he does – but loses his hands in the battle. The end of the squid story brings jk back to his garden palace, but the loss of his hands leaves us existentially adrift, weighing the cost of choosing action over passivity, of privileging knowledge over ignorance, and of coping with the heavy weight of survival. jk’s gamble is that even the most heroic choices may leave us with less than what we started with.

performance will take place on august 8, 2010 in the shaefer theater, bryan center, duke’s west campus

questions? email jes20 at duke dot edu

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