#klugscheisser

Just sayin’

Wed, 15 May 2019 21:03:13 +0200

Just sayin’

Martin Kopischke on Twitter

| akira asakura, https://flic.kr/p/22VrAqe

Fri, 21 Dec 2018 12:14:22 +0100

| akira asakura, https://flic.kr/p/22VrAqe

When Tumblr bans porn, who loses?

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 10:31:01 +0100

When Tumblr bans porn, who loses?:

plaidadder:

aenariasbookshelf:

anaisnein:

xenoqueer:

The Vox article that I was interviewed for is up and running, and it contains some serious fuckign information about this whole fiasco.

Information that tumblr just straight up refused to provide to its userbase at all.

Unsurprisingly to those of us watching this website deteriorate over the last year, this full content purge and ban has been in progress for a solid 6 months. The date got moved up because of the child porn thing, but it was always coming for us.

Equally unsurprising: Tumblr’s management and ownership are absolutely destroying the actual staff working on it. The company has been hemoragghing senior staff without so much as a token attempt to keep them in place. So the drops in site quality are real, and wil probably only be getting worse.

Truly astonishing is the fact that apparently this crap was supposed to “double” the userbase by the end of next year. Boy, howdy, that’s not gonna work out well for them.

good luck with your plan to sell ads targeting a user base that doesn’t exist any more, @staff.

@staff @support you may want to read this. No one seems to think this nsfw ban move is a good thing. Your credibility is circling the drain at this point.

This has all been done in such a tragically stupid fashion. And it makes it worse that they actually planned it for six months before initiating it.

The Vox piece doesn’t even really portray the extent of the devastation. They’ve broken this website for ALL of their users.

Money Quote: »Investitionen in Flüchtlinge haben sich grundsätzlich immer gelohnt. Investitionen in…

Thu, 29 Nov 2018 18:25:34 +0100

Philipp Ther: “Integration ist immer ein zweiseitiger Prozess”

Money Quote: »Investitionen in Flüchtlinge haben sich grundsätzlich immer gelohnt. Investitionen in den Sprachunterricht, in Schulbildung, Stipendien, Unternehmensgründungen – das hat sich, wenn man die jüngere Geschichte betrachtet, jedes Mal für die gesamte Gesellschaft gerechnet.«. Immer schön, wenn Historiker*innen aus der akademischen Blase treten und uns daran erinnern, warum Geschichtsbildung gesellschaftsrelevant ist …

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 21:04:58 +0100

The Shipyard | Avanaut, https://flic.kr/p/29EnDbA

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 15:01:42 +0200

The Shipyard | Avanaut, https://flic.kr/p/29EnDbA

thebibliosphere: blood-on-my-french-fries: suzie-guru: freekic...

Sun, 30 Sep 2018 13:40:05 +0200

thebibliosphere:

blood-on-my-french-fries:

suzie-guru:

freekicks:

pyrrhiccomedy:

pyrrhiccomedy:

The famous La Marseillaise scene from Casablanca.

You know, this scene is so powerful to me that sometimes I forget that not everyone who watches it will understand its significance, or will have seen Casablanca. So, because this scene means so much to me, I hope it’s okay if I take a minute to explain what’s going on here for anyone who’s feeling left out.

Casablanca takes place in, well, Casablanca, the largest city in (neutral) Morocco in 1941, at Rick’s American Cafe (Rick is Humphrey Bogart’s character you see there). In 1941, America was also still neutral, and Rick’s establishment is open to everyone: Nazi German officials, officials from Vichy (occupied) France, and refugees from all across Europe desperate to escape the German war engine. A neutral cafe in a netural country is probably the only place you’d have seen a cross-section like this in 1941, only six months after the fall of France.

So, the scene opens with Rick arguing with Laszlo, who is a Czech Resistance fighter fleeing from the Nazis (if you’re wondering what they’re arguing about: Rick has illegal transit papers which would allow Laszlo and his wife, Ilsa, to escape to America, so he could continue raising support against the Germans. Rick refuses to sell because he’s in love with Laszlo’s wife). They’re interrupted by that cadre of German officers singing Die Wacht am Rhein: a German patriotic hymn which was adopted with great verve by the Nazi regime, and which is particularly steeped in anti-French history. This depresses the hell out of everybody at the club, and infuriates Laszlo, who storms downstairs and orders the house band to play La Marseillaise: the national anthem of France.

Wait, but when I say “it’s the national anthem of France,” I don’t want you to think of your national anthem, okay? Wherever you’re from. Because France’s anthem isn’t talking about some glorious long-ago battle, or France’s beautiful hills and countrysides. La Marseillaise is FUCKING BRUTAL. Here’s a translation of what they’re singing:

Arise, children of the Fatherland! The day of glory has arrived! Against us, tyranny raises its bloody banner. Do you hear, in the countryside, the roar of those ferocious soldiers? They’re coming to your land to cut the throats of your women and children!

To arms, citizens! Form your battalions! Let’s march, let’s march! Let their impure blood water our fields!

BRUTAL, like I said. DEFIANT, in these circumstances. And the entire cafe stands up and sings it passionately, drowning out the Germans. The Germans who are, in 1941, still terrifyingly ascendant, and seemingly invincible.

“Vive la France! Vive la France!” the crowd cries when it’s over. France has already been defeated, the German war machine roars on, and the people still refuse to give up hope.

But here’s the real kicker, for me: Casablanca came out in 1942. None of this was ‘history’ to the people who first saw it. Real refugees from the Nazis, afraid for their lives, watched this movie and took heart. These were current events when this aired. Victory over Germany was still far from certain. The hope it gave to people then was as desperately needed as it has been at any time in history.

God I love this scene.

not only did refugees see this movie, real refugees made this movie. most of the european cast members wound up in hollywood after fleeing the nazis and wound up.

paul heinreid, who played laszlo the resistance leader, was a famous austrian actor; he was so anti-hitler that he was named an enemy of the reich. ugarte, the petty thief who stole the illegal transit papers laszlo and victor are arguing about? was played by peter lorre, a jewish refugee. carl, the head waiter? played by s.z. sakall, a hungarian-jew whose three sisters died in the holocaust.

even the main nazi character was played by a german refugee: conrad veidt, who starred in one of the first sympathetic films about gay men and who fled the nazis with his jewish wife.

there’s one person in this scene that deserves special mention. did you notice the woman at the bar, on the verge of tears as she belts out la marseillaise? she’s yvonne, rick’s ex-girlfriend in the film. in real life, the actress’s name is madeleine lebeau and she basically lived the plot of this film: she and her jewish husband fled paris ahead of the germans in 1940. her husband, macel dalio, is also in the film, playing the guy working the roulette table. after they occupied paris, the nazis used his face on posters to represent a “typical jew.” madeleine and marcel managed to get to lisbon (the goal of all the characters in casablanca), and boarded a ship to the americas… but then they were stranded for two months when it turned out their visa papers were forgeries. they eventually entered the US after securing temporary canadian visas. marcel dalio’s entire family died in concentration camps.

go back and rewatch the clip. watch madeleine lebeau’s face.

casablanca is a classic, full of classic acting performances. but in this moment, madeleine lebeau isn’t acting. this isn’t yvonne the jilted lover onscreen. this is madeleine lebeau, singing “la marseillaise” after she and her husband fled france for their lives. this is a real-life refugee, her real agony and loss and hope and resilience, preserved in the midst of one of the greatest films of all time.

I remember when I first saw Casablanca, and being struck by this scene, and that was without knowing the history behind it or all that Madeleine Lebeau - and so many more refugees- had suffered.

Do yourself a solid and watch this film. Watch this scene. And most of all, remember refugees, the ones who lived then and especially the ones who live now.

I knew this movie, of course, it’s one of the mains from my mother’s list of movies you should see “At least once in a lifetime”, but I had never until now felt any desire to watch it.

It’s one of those movies where context and the (not so quite) subtle subtext are vitally important to understanding the importance of it, not only as a classic piece of film making (hokey old timey speech and all), but as a political and social commentary of the times, rooted fiercely in protest and a whole lot of “fuck you fascists”.

I never really got it until my father (raised by his Jewish grandmother who fled Austria with the clothes on her back and a single suitcase and swathes of dead loved ones left behind) sat me down and told me the full context of when the movie was made, what it was actually about and who it was made for.

It made his casual way of saying “here’s looking at you kid” whenever we skipped school to go to protest rallies (start of the Iraq war) all the more poignant for me. I just thought he was being an old man quoting the popular cult media from his youth. But it means so much more than that.

Cause here’s the thing about that iconic line from the end of the movie: you’ll find screeds and screeds of people talking about how he’s using it to flirt with her once last time and just how suave it is, alluding that it’s purely about her youth and beauty and his ever lasting love for her even though she’s married to someone else.

But that line? Had been in use for a good 50+ years prior to Casablanca gracing the screens. It’s a toast, a wish for your health. And the people watching would have known the significance of it, particularly the displaced Europeans knowing that they’ll likely never see their loved ones again.

Cause here’s looking at you kid– and the unspoken meaning behind it– one last time.

Rick isn’t just letting go of the love of his life in that scene. He’s using his position of power and privilege as an American with access to outside networks (predominantly crime related, but hey) to help her escape the country with her highly persecuted and sought after husband to a place of safety.

He had the option to just take her himself and run– and her husband even urges him to do so at one point. But Rick endeavors to get them both to safety, and he shows up armed to do so. He fights for their freedom even though he doesn’t have to. He goes from staunchly refusing to help them out of bitterness and cynicism, to realizing that if he doesn’t do something people are going to die. And he doesn’t just save the woman he loves, which would be oh so easy. He saves the man he hates too. Because he can, so he must.

The final scene ends with Renault (played by Claude Rains, an Englishman), head of the local police (and a character largely played for laughs), making the decision not to arrest Rick or anyone else involved when ordered to, actively defying the orders of a fascist. When he and Rick are walking away, he insinuates that he and Rick should join the French Resistance movement in Brazzaville, and Rick again delivers the other iconic line from the movie: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Casablanca is about forging alliances in the face of tyranny. It’s about doing what is right, even though it goes against the law when the law is corrupt. It’s about being willing to give up your own liberties and comfort to preserve the things you love, even though it won’t directly benefit you. Hell, it might even kill you. But someone’s got to do it.

And yea, it’s old, it’s dated and a product of it’s time and it shows. There are times when the modern viewer will cringe and rightly so. But it was also incredibly out there for its time, when the world was going to absolute hell in a hand basket and it seemed like the walls were closing in, it held many important messages, but primarily: Resist.

So here’s looking at you, kids.

Papa, hat dir dein Mathelehrer immer gesagt, »ihr werdet nicht immer einen Taschenrechner in der…

Sun, 30 Sep 2018 13:21:07 +0200

Papa, hat dir dein Mathelehrer immer gesagt, »ihr werdet nicht immer einen Taschenrechner in der Tasche haben«?

Das süffisante Grinsen vom Senior-Junior lässt hier nicht wiedergeben…

Leider stimmt die Vorstellung, dass mit der Integration Rassismus abnimmt, eben auch nicht. Dann…

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 13:29:24 +0200

Leider stimmt die Vorstellung, dass mit der Integration Rassismus abnimmt, eben auch nicht. Dann gibt es mehr erfolgreiche – Menschen, die Neid auf sich ziehen, die mitbestimmen wollen, sich einmischen, die Gesellschaft prägen. Das wollen manche nicht. Dass plötzlich auch auf die anderen gehört wird und nicht mehr nur auf sie, empört sie. Das gilt nicht nur für die, die sich ökonomisch bedroht fühlen. Sondern auch für die, die sich kulturell an den Rand gedrängt fühlen. Sie registrieren, dass sie nicht mehr die Deutungshoheit haben, ihre Vorstellung vom „richtigen“ Leben nicht mehr unhinterfragt bleibt.

Aladin El-Mafaalani im taz-Interview mit der bestechendsten Analyse des (nicht nur deutschen) Wutbürgertums.

Matthew Inman versteht den Klugscheisser. © The Oatmeal 2018

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 22:30:25 +0200

Matthew Inman versteht den Klugscheisser. © The Oatmeal 2018

Sky Silo (hier: San Antonio, Ibiza)

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:36:49 +0200

Sky Silo (hier: San Antonio, Ibiza)

Where Money Comes From (hier: Es Nàutic Restaurante / Club...

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:06:07 +0200

Where Money Comes From (hier: Es Nàutic Restaurante / Club Nautico San Antonio)

Where Money Goes to Die (hier: Es Nàutic Sant Antoni. Ibiza)

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:59:20 +0200

Where Money Goes to Die (hier: Es Nàutic Sant Antoni. Ibiza)

Mirror World (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 12:04:34 +0200

Mirror World (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

Earthbound (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 11:58:40 +0200

Earthbound (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

The Land is Sky (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 11:33:02 +0200

The Land is Sky (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

Skybound (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 20:16:06 +0200

Skybound (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

The Land is Sea (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 20:10:53 +0200

The Land is Sea (hier: Hourtin-Plage, Aquitaine, France)

La légende retrouvée de Yasuke, le premier samouraï noir du Japon

Sat, 11 Aug 2018 14:21:55 +0200

La légende retrouvée de Yasuke, le premier samouraï noir du Japon:

Geschichte ist eben reicher und vielfältiger als Vorurteile.

I am always amused by people who tell me that I’ve over-analyzed something, because it is so handy…

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 18:53:12 +0200

I am always amused by people who tell me that I’ve over-analyzed something, because it is so handy that their amount of analysis is the perfect amount of analysis. How nice to know that the amount of analysis you give something is precisely the right amount of analysis it should receive!

Over-analysis is when someone else thinks more than you do. That doesn’t mean we can always answer a question, but I think there is too little thinking in the world, not too much.

Sarah Churchwell in Marilyn Monroe: Anything but a dumb blonde. Das Interview ist nicht eben neu, aber immer noch lesenswert.