licht aus

Tonight, anywhere and everywhere, at 20:30 (8:30 p.m.) local time is Earth Hour (EN/DE). Switching what off one can for the hour, and then maybe considering what can stay off before turning it back on, shows support and solidarity for climate-change awareness and conservation. This is another one of those annual observances with a short turn-around time, but the lesson and intent of this symbolic act can be applied far beyond just these sixty minutes. Considering that the environmental catastrophes recently perpetrated, the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the shipwrecked nuclear industry all the thousand daily insults were all about the demand to deliver massive amounts of energy on budget—not to mention the vacillating attitudes on stability in the Middle East, perhaps this small but wide-spread sign and changing practices and habits has even more urgency.

portemonnaie or a hole in your pocket

In German it is called a Taschen- leerer--this giant wooden hand, or vide- poche--more elegantly in French--both meaning "empty pockets," and is an end-of-the-day catch-all. After stumbling across an engrossing gallery of such studies called Everyday Carry, I decided to arrange a similar still-life with wallet. I would not be brave enough, however, to contribute there, since I don't have a small gun and a big knife. Here are the daily contents of my man-purse ("little bag")--excluding the camera, of course. Compared to the cleverly presented and compact and gritty, utilitarian collections that seem like an insight, in some cases, into the quivers--not personal but rather vulnerable, somehow--of post-apocalyptic urban survivalists, my clutter and equipage seems pretty tame. Asking people around the world to turn out their pockets, a global purse dump, would be an interesting anthropological exercise.

ego ideal or black narcissus

Though I do not believe that this an entirely fair criticism and appraisal, since there are scads of most-preferred forums and venues out there of varying quality and prominence and utility and some accords ring truer and clearer than others, I though that this analysis of one social network, one mantra was something to ruminate on. Maybe the topic only struck me--caught my attention because I have such predilections that I'd prefer not to highlight, save here, though probably readily apparent everywhere else. Maybe the creative urge, to publish, to politic or to ponificate, has been sublimated into the evanesent idea of community, though no appeal to metapsychiatry of recovery and nostagia--something undermining, devious or luddite, intended.

nokorimono ni wa fuku ga aru

Translation: Luck is in the leftovers (Glück ist in den Resten). Through all this theater and smoke and mirrors--projected fears, Japan is rebuilding and persevering, but one should not forget the scope, nebulous vagaries for future climates on a global, national and neighbourhood scale, and intensely personal in terms of loss and aplomb. Though taxed with an array of concerns, the world's thoughts are with the people of Japan. Nanakorobi yaoki. Translation: Stumbling seven times but recovering eight (Sieben mal zu stolpern jedoch zu aufstehen acht).

the calypso caper

It is difficult to discern what the involuntary consortium of Western powers, be they the UN, the US, NATO or some mandate or protectorate, are trying to accomplish in the Levant. They act against the vocal and tacit advice of many, including regional powers’ limited approval. To estimate the situation in Libya the same as other recent revolutions, with names spicy and colourful, may be over-simplifying and unflattering to call it imitation. America, feigning reluctance, is pushing forward and, I believe, clearing following a tragically predictable playbook. I wonder where is this war’s Curveball, the Iraq informant and agitator who fed the intelligence agencies and hawkish minds exactly what they wanted to hear. Or is there no such figure this time around, only the irresistible siren song of battle and Balkanization by dividing the region?