Die Verdienste des Karl-Markus Gauß sind mannigfaltig, seine Entdeckungen literarischer und linguistischer Natur verblüffend. Mit seinen Expeditionen zu untergehenden Ethnien (zB „Die sterbenden Europäer„) und hoffnungslos marginalisierten Minderheiten (zB „Die Hundeesser von Svinia„, Bild) hat Gauß die letzten Spurenelemente vormals vorhandener Vielfalt Europas dokumentiert – und somit das offiziöse Bekenntnis zu dieser Vielfalt als Heuchelei enttarnt. Auch die Art seiner Erkundungen verdient Anerkennung: Der Zeit weist Gauß eine subalterne Rolle zu. Weiterlesen
Archiv der Kategorie: Notizen | notes
11|07|18: Reading list
Should anyone be dumbfounded by my peculiar reading list in July: I am on vacation.
11|07|16: The Fox News Fear Factory
The Fall of the House of Murdoch might be pretty amazing by European standards; and the work of the Guardian is definitely a splendid example of what proper journalism can contribute to civil society once the institutions fail so miserably. But a piece in the June edition of the Rolling Stone Magazine by Tim Dickinson reveals what really is at stake: Murdoch’s US operations. Weiterlesen
11|07|14: Ich hab ja gewußt, dass ich fliegen kann
Das klingt natürlich verflucht nach einer Autobiographie einer berufsbedingt selbstverliebten Schauspielerin, in diesem Fall Senta Berger. Aber Berger gehört zu jenen Darstellerinnen, die selbst in den allerfragwürdigsten Produktionen ihre Basisqualitäten zu Tage treten lassen können. Und so ist das auch mit diesem Buch: Das Herschnurren der Besetzungslisten in Film und Theater im letzten Drittel ist für jene, die die Bunte von hinten lesen; die Decouvrierung von österreichischen Legenden wie Heinz Conrads als Geilspecht (“Spätestens am Tullnerberg versuchte er, mein Knie zu streicheln und meinen Rock hochzuschieben”) ist da schon besser. Weiterlesen
11|07|13: Baby’s in Black
This is the story of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe. Just in case: Kirchherr was the Hamburg photographer who styled the Beatles in their very early years. And Sutcliffe was the initial bass player in the band. But the “German Girl Meets English Boy” story went tragically wrong as Sutcliffe died of an undetected aneurysm after he had left the band and took up his studies at the Hamburg art academy. The format of the graphic novel seems to be ideal for this story, appropriately told in English and German . Arne Bellstorf (nice blog, btw) recounts it in quiet, monochrome pictures, not only depicting a young and befittingly impudent band on beer and pills but also drawing a subdued, yet poignant portrait of Hamburg in the early 1960s. (Reprodukt Verlag, 2010)
11|07|11: The Summer without Men
There are numerous reasons for reading this book by Siri Hustvedt (apart from her dedication “To Oliver. Happy Birthday” which M. acquired when Siri Husvedt gave this year’s Freud Lecture in Vienna). But this excerpt should be convincing enough: “There is a brewing, oh yes, there is some whitches’ stew brewing. I know because I lived it. But before I get to that, I want to tell you, Gentle Person out there, that if you are here with me now, on the page, I mean, if you have come to this paragraph, if you have not given up and sent me, Mia, flying across the room or even if you have, but you got to wondering whether something might not happen soon and picked me up again and are reading still, then I want to reach out for you and take your face in both my hands and cover you with kisses, kisses on your cheeks and chin and all over your forehead and on the bridge of your (variously shaped) nose, because I am yours, all yours. I just wanted you to know.” (Picador, 2011)
11|06|06: Eric Hobsbawm “Interesting Times“
I had known his name but never bothered to read any of Hobsbawm’s works apart from the odd article. Working on an essay on the “Invention of Tradition” offered a first serious point of contact. Any biography covering the life of a person born 1917 in Alexandria with a childhood in post-war Vienna, adolescence in pre-Nazi Berlin and studies in Cambridge in the 1930s plus membership in the Communist Party would make for a fine reading. But Hobsbawm’s autobiography published in 2002 is far more than an excellently written chronicle of “Interesting Times”; Weiterlesen
11|06|02: Der Ana-Chronist
Ernst Molden hat vor ein paar Tagen im Rabenhof seine neue CD “es lem” vorgestellt; und seine übernächste (“weidafoan”) gleich dazu, doch davon später mehr. Der Reihe nach: “es lem”also zeichnet sich erstmal durch das bislang schönste Cover seiner bisherigen CDs aus, das Mauthner-Wasser (nehme ich einmal an) schmückt den erfahrenen Terrianer Molden ganz ausgezeichnet. Weiterlesen
11|05|28: Gil Scott-Heron dies aged 62
This is sad news. I met this man some 25 years ago in Vienna. But I suppose he would have left his mark had I only known him through his lyrics, his songs. Like him they are full of attitude, humour, gentleness and desperation, and swing. Oh, and an obligation: „If you’re not going to help, do not complain what is happening, ‚cause you could be doing that.“ Appropriate obituary and videos in the Guardian.