unkonstruktives misstrauensvotum

Following disappointing election returns in Bavaria and Hessen, Angela Merkel announced her intent not to seek to keep her position as chairwoman of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) party, a post she has held for eighteen years.
A change in party leadership does not, however, translate to an automatic departure from the chancellorship, the incumbent since 2005—soliciting both relief and consternation. The ballot outcomes were still good enough to keep her party in first place but the rather precipitous loss of a tenth of voters plus the eroding, splintered confidence in their centre-left coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD—die Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands)—came as a humbling shock.

bilancia dei pagamenti

Rome and its freshly-minted conservative and anti-establishment government’s on-going strife with the EU over its fiscal policy, the country and the supranational body at loggerheads over a magnanimous and expansive budget versus a perceived push for unpopular austerity, is resulting in credit rating agencies—arguably their own special variety of bully—downgrading the outlook on Italy’s ability to fund the country or service its debts.
Banksy’s self-destructing piece of art seems to be a very apt meme to reference for this awkward standoff and stalemate, though departing from civic norms is not the same as impugning the sacred cows of the auction house. Neither party seems willing to budge but Brussels has signalled that it does not want to court an open, public battle between a populist coalition and the sedate commitments of sustainability and stability. At the same time, negotiations continue and Italy believes a resolution will be reached without any rash actions and stop short of outright revolt or renewed threats to quit the union.

6x6

subscribe to our newsletter: having to compete with social media walled-gardens, websites have gotten to be pretty needy, via Nag on the Lake

torch song trilogy: Theresa May Dancing to Stuff, via Everlasting Blört
 
gifaanisqatsi: a rather soothing random mix of animations whose time dilations fit with the 1983 documentary about “worlds out of balance” (previously with GIF), via Things Magazine

got to go where the love is: a number from Van Morrison’s new album

safety matches versus strike anywhere: designer Helen Stickler creates messages of activism out of vintage matchbook covers

sortation: Pirate Party in Iceland proposes to select at random ten individuals to address parliament every month  

stadtbezirke

Since working in Wiesbaden, I get pangs of guilt for not having visited neighbouring Frankfurt am Main (previously here and here) terribly often—especially given the ease of exploration and ample opportunities, not to mention all the things we haven’t seen. I took a long meandering walk through the city, beginning with the post-industrial wastelands that surrounded the Hauptbahnhof—the Gutleut quarter, the former manufacturing sector of the metropolis, grown around the export hub and marvelled at the Empire Age power plant erected in 1894, burning coal until 1994 when it made the transition to natural gas.
With quite a few detours, I made my way across town to see the Poelzig Building—known as the IG-Farben-Gebaüde. Completed in 1930, the compound was the headquarters of the chemical concern (the synthetic dye industry syndicate—the then one of the largest companies in the world), architect Hans Poelzig’s design embodied the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movement of the inter-war years.
The mammoth though airy and sparsely modern space was a deemed a fitting showcase for the company that not only pioneered synthetic oils and discovered the first antibiotic, the research of the conglomerate played an indispensable role in pressing Germany and the world to conflict a second time—despite being publicly reviled and scapegoated by elements of the far right. After the surrender of Nazi Germany, the complex became the Supreme Allied Command and until 1952, the High Commissioner for Germany—earning it the informal moniker, the Pentagon of Europe—the US Defence Department completed in 1943.
Afterwards, it hosted the US Army V Corps, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers with the US withdrawing and returning the building to the state in 1995.
The ensemble of buildings became the Westend campus of the University of Frankfurt and houses the departments of philosophy, history, theology, linguistics and North American studies. The nude nymph statue at the reflecting pool was removed, at the request of Mamie Eisenhower, during American occupation, the commanding general’s wife deeming it inappropriate for a military installation. Another feature that the main building is known for are its paternoster lifts—which were formerly accessible to the visiting public but are presently inoperable.

we’re all stoned or pacified while the boogeymen organise

We’re indebted to Hyperallergic’s Edward M Gómez’ graceful and accomplished interview with Yoko Ono’s urgent reprisal and nimbler, svelter remix of a selection of her earlier recordings with Warzone. Re-mastering her repertoire with the knowing passion that indeed our future depends on it, Ono (previously) with the help of keyboard artist Doveman and a chorus of animals revisits her classic anthems that have retained their resonance and taken on a new currency. Check out their encounter and dialogue at Hyperallergic at the link up top.

fancy dress party

In case you are in need of a bit more inspiration to come up with a Halloween custom as the holiday creeps closer and close, why not consult your friendly neighbourhood AI.

Outdoing last year’s training session, Janelle Shane taught her neural network (previously) on a dataset of over seven thousand outfit ideas and had her efforts profiled in the New York Times, with illustrations of the learning process, trial and error illustrated by Jessia Ma—even the ones that seemed to defy sense and representation.

Check them all out at the links above and perhaps find a character that speaks to you for trick-or-treating or your office party—and yes, there’s even a whole sub-set of ill-advised sexy costumes.

What are your favourites?

protestzug

A peaceful march was organised as a counter and what turned out to to be a larger and longer-lived assembly began at the main train station and would face off a campaign rally staged by Alternative für Deutschland ahead of Hessen casting their votes on Sunday, most European elections falling on that day of the week since with most businesses closed, participation can be maximised.
Constituencies in the US probably still merit a holiday to help fight aggressive disenfranchisement and other barriers to the ballot. Police presence was reassuring, including this one figuring sporting a jacket reading POLIZEI SOCIAL MEDIA. I couldn’t quite comprehend the way that that’s supposed to be read.