Sunday, June 17, 2007
Greetings from Germany
My initial perception of Berlin is pretty good. I'm not going through any culture shock, because Berlin is a lot like Minneapolis. I guess aside from the language, here are the few exceptions I've found so far:
=In Berlin, Everyone smokes. Everyone.
=In Berlin, Everyone wears black. Everyone. I'm pretty sure anyone wearing all white would be shot on sight.
=In Berlin, people follow the rules, especially when driving or walking, and there is little tolerance for rulebreakers.
=The beer in Berlin makes the beer in Minneapolis taste like piss
=Berlin has a bunch of Internet Cafe's with fucked up kezböärds
=Lots and Lots and LOTS of art in Berlin. Statues, memorials, museums, you name it.
=Lots and Lots and LOTS of graffiti in Berlin.
=Minneapolis has never been bombed.
But most importantly, Minneapolis has more live music than Berlin. Or perhaps I should say, the live music is easier to find in Minneapolis. Even a cover band would be better than fucking DJs, because we all know DJ's are useless hack wannabes, they can't make music, so they make a living 'spinning' other people's records. For some reason, people think DJ's can be good at this.
I'm in Köln now, and moving south, but it's back to Berlin by the 24th for the Marilyn Manson concert in Citadelle Spandeau...
Tchüss...
KTHXBYE,
-CZ
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=In Berlin, Everyone smokes. Everyone.
=In Berlin, Everyone wears black. Everyone. I'm pretty sure anyone wearing all white would be shot on sight.
=In Berlin, people follow the rules, especially when driving or walking, and there is little tolerance for rulebreakers.
=The beer in Berlin makes the beer in Minneapolis taste like piss
=Berlin has a bunch of Internet Cafe's with fucked up kezböärds
=Lots and Lots and LOTS of art in Berlin. Statues, memorials, museums, you name it.
=Lots and Lots and LOTS of graffiti in Berlin.
=Minneapolis has never been bombed.
But most importantly, Minneapolis has more live music than Berlin. Or perhaps I should say, the live music is easier to find in Minneapolis. Even a cover band would be better than fucking DJs, because we all know DJ's are useless hack wannabes, they can't make music, so they make a living 'spinning' other people's records. For some reason, people think DJ's can be good at this.
I'm in Köln now, and moving south, but it's back to Berlin by the 24th for the Marilyn Manson concert in Citadelle Spandeau...
Tchüss...
KTHXBYE,
-CZ
Labels: A Day In The Life, Culture
Friday, June 08, 2007
Vacation and DSH update
If you've noticed that the blog posts here at conradzero.com were few and far between...
...then you should probably get back to work, you are reading too many blog posts.
But, for the faithful two or three of you who come here for your fix, I wanted to warn you that the postings are about to become fewer and farther between.
I'm taking a well-earned break from Things-That-Plug-Into-The-Wall, and I should be back in a few weeks, unless I happen across a Cyber Cafe / Hash Bar in Amsterdam, in which case I will update, but it probably wont be legible or intelligible, OR if I happen across a Turkish Police happen across ME, in which case, it might be a while before my next post.
Oh yes, by the way, The First Complete Draft of The Demoslayers Handbook...
...is finished.
KTHXBYE,
-CZ
1 Comments
Permalink
...then you should probably get back to work, you are reading too many blog posts.
But, for the faithful two or three of you who come here for your fix, I wanted to warn you that the postings are about to become fewer and farther between.
I'm taking a well-earned break from Things-That-Plug-Into-The-Wall, and I should be back in a few weeks, unless I happen across a Cyber Cafe / Hash Bar in Amsterdam, in which case I will update, but it probably wont be legible or intelligible, OR if I happen across a Turkish Police happen across ME, in which case, it might be a while before my next post.
Oh yes, by the way, The First Complete Draft of The Demoslayers Handbook...
...is finished.
KTHXBYE,
-CZ
Labels: A Day In The Life, Blogging, The Demonslayers Handbook
Qwest: "Are You In?"
Qwest has a new slogan:
"Are you in?"
I'm not kidding. Guess they gave up on "Ride the Light" after they realized cellular phone connections involved large stretches on NON-FIBER-OPTIC COMMUNICATION.
As a replacement, they chose "Spirit of Service", but while on Nearly-Eternal-Hold with Qwest Customer Service, I heard the tag, "Are You In?". I asked the nice operator who eventually woke me up to verify that "Are You In?" is their new slogan.
"One of them," she admitted nervously, "Um, can I help you?"
I suggested that "Are You In?" could be one of several in a series of witty marketing slogans, and the next one can be, "Are you done?" and then "Are you sure?" or "Was it good for you?"
She didn't think it was that funny.
KTHXBYE,
-CZ
0 Comments
Permalink
"Are you in?"
I'm not kidding. Guess they gave up on "Ride the Light" after they realized cellular phone connections involved large stretches on NON-FIBER-OPTIC COMMUNICATION.
As a replacement, they chose "Spirit of Service", but while on Nearly-Eternal-Hold with Qwest Customer Service, I heard the tag, "Are You In?". I asked the nice operator who eventually woke me up to verify that "Are You In?" is their new slogan.
"One of them," she admitted nervously, "Um, can I help you?"
I suggested that "Are You In?" could be one of several in a series of witty marketing slogans, and the next one can be, "Are you done?" and then "Are you sure?" or "Was it good for you?"
She didn't think it was that funny.
KTHXBYE,
-CZ
Labels: Business Phenomena
Monday, June 04, 2007
Sanctuary
Nothing on Television interests me. Nothing. Not CSI-[Fill-In-The-City-Name-Here] or any of the Un-Reality shows. And the music shows? I would rather be making shitty music than watching other people do it. Same with sports.
But this looks interesting: http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ Its a new web-only production that looks like it has some quality and substance to it. The trailer is out now, and the webisodes are coming soon. The only part that disturbs me is the "create an account" button. Why should I need an account to watch webisodes? That's like needing to Log In to watch television.
But I might actually give this a chance. The fact that it looks to be the same genre as my novel, The Demonslayer's Handbook, might have something to do with it.
Call it research.
Blog on,
-CZ
1 Comments
Permalink
But this looks interesting: http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ Its a new web-only production that looks like it has some quality and substance to it. The trailer is out now, and the webisodes are coming soon. The only part that disturbs me is the "create an account" button. Why should I need an account to watch webisodes? That's like needing to Log In to watch television.
But I might actually give this a chance. The fact that it looks to be the same genre as my novel, The Demonslayer's Handbook, might have something to do with it.
Call it research.
Blog on,
-CZ
Labels: new release, Videos
Friday, June 01, 2007
Reality Czech
[Editors Note: Well, I'm not sure what happened with Blogger, but I lost some draft posts I was working on. Strangely the titles and labels are still intact, like this, cleverly-named, "Reality Czech". The post was pretty long, and I tend to sit on those, and re-read them when I'm sober (or if I originally wrote the post sober, then I re-read it when I'm drunk. Either way, it manages to get filtered from two perspectives.) Regardless, I will reconstruct as much of this post as I can remember.]
Recently I was talking with Saveau when he mentioned he liked the blog, and especially my book review of Lilith Saintcrow's 'Dead Man Rising' Near as I could tell, he found the review both Negative and Entertaining.
It's strange how frequently I forget that other people read the crap I write here, and how I often treat this blog as simply a journal of thoughts like in the movie Seven, "...his mind just poured out on paper". So I suppose I would expect it to be negative, since I'm the kind of person who sees the glass as not only half-empty, but the half that is left tastes like shit and the service sucks too.
But Entertaining? Remembering back to English Comp I and the "Aims and Modes of the Writing Process" if you aren't writing for Informative, Educational or Persuasive reasons, then you either better be Entertaining, Possessed, or Being Forced To Write at Gunpoint, so I suppose Entertaining is a good thing.
But I wanted to clear up a slight point: I know of lots of writers (especially blog writers) who think that simply being negative is enough to be entertaining, and ranting about how utterly, horrifically bloody-gawd-awful something is is enough to make them entertaining. (Comedians like Rush Limbaugh make entire careers out of it.) I try to be Entertaining AND Negative, not Entertaining BY BEING Negative. The difference is slight, but important, and I try to never say things on this blog that I didn't really believe, or wouldn't say to anyone in person. I want to read this blog fifty years from now and see what the hell I was like 'back then'. So if I rail on things like "Dead Man Rising" or "King Kong" for instance, it's because I really didn't like them - no more, no less.
Blog on,
-Z
2 Comments
Permalink
Recently I was talking with Saveau when he mentioned he liked the blog, and especially my book review of Lilith Saintcrow's 'Dead Man Rising' Near as I could tell, he found the review both Negative and Entertaining.
It's strange how frequently I forget that other people read the crap I write here, and how I often treat this blog as simply a journal of thoughts like in the movie Seven, "...his mind just poured out on paper". So I suppose I would expect it to be negative, since I'm the kind of person who sees the glass as not only half-empty, but the half that is left tastes like shit and the service sucks too.
But Entertaining? Remembering back to English Comp I and the "Aims and Modes of the Writing Process" if you aren't writing for Informative, Educational or Persuasive reasons, then you either better be Entertaining, Possessed, or Being Forced To Write at Gunpoint, so I suppose Entertaining is a good thing.
But I wanted to clear up a slight point: I know of lots of writers (especially blog writers) who think that simply being negative is enough to be entertaining, and ranting about how utterly, horrifically bloody-gawd-awful something is is enough to make them entertaining. (Comedians like Rush Limbaugh make entire careers out of it.) I try to be Entertaining AND Negative, not Entertaining BY BEING Negative. The difference is slight, but important, and I try to never say things on this blog that I didn't really believe, or wouldn't say to anyone in person. I want to read this blog fifty years from now and see what the hell I was like 'back then'. So if I rail on things like "Dead Man Rising" or "King Kong" for instance, it's because I really didn't like them - no more, no less.
Blog on,
-Z
Labels: Blogging, Culture, movie reviews, Writing
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