The prisoners in the camp had to build things for the Nazis. They dug tunnels and made rifles, things like that. They tried to sabatoge their progress in order to resist the Nazi regime. They had to be careful how they did it though because they would be punished with beatings and death.
My dad was drafted into the military during Vietnam. Due to an injury during training he was stationed in the pentagon doing peon work. He told me the MIT computer guys working there were bitter about their draft and would always fuck up the computer systems before their discharge.

OK more on these subjects later.


dogs treatment in nazi prison vs dog treatment in iraq prison
gay symbol(hanky in the back pocket) vs nazi symbol(red, pink, yellow triangles)

I'm so tired. my schedule is flip flopped and I've been up 20 hours now because i didn't want to miss this excursion to the Buchenwald. It was a perfect day for it, cold and rainy. The monument from the GDR is something, it's huge, like a Roman Colosseum somehow but there are also information centers. The barracks have been plowed down. Only the gate area and crematorium remain. I sleep now.

Let’s go back to 1958. In the little mill town of Bynum, NC there lived 4 teenage boys, Hobo, Kilroy, Skipper, and Pete. These boys’s had a custom for mischief night. They would go out to farmer Green’s house and tip over his outhouse. A few days before Halloween these boys ran into farmer Green at the local store, Grady’s. Framer Green said “I’m ready for you boys this year” the boys laughed and said “yeah right.”
A few days later it was mischief night. The boys piled into Hobo’s old junker and drove out to farmer Green’s house. They parked, hopped out of the car and started running across the pasture toward the distant silhouette of the outhouse. Now, Kilroy was the fastest of all the boys and they could see him way up ahead, running and running, when all of the sudden he disappeared.
The other boys slowed down a bit and started calling out for Kilroy. They found him down in the shit hole yelling, “Get me outta here.” Farmer green had moved the outhouse back a few yards. The boys pulled Kilroy out. He stripped and jumped in the cold river. Then he rode back to town buck necked.

vivi and lisa convinced me i look better with short hair and so after months of pain staking growing, i cut it all off again.



PS
my old teacher danny walsh told me that it was Robert Mapplethorpe who did those huge kkk portraits.

It's 9:50 am here. For some reason my schudule is flipped around so I'll go to bed in a few hours. Being left here in Weimar while the rest of my class is a week in Belgium, is kind of a bummer. Plus the 4 roommates thing is starting to get to me a little. It's strange. On the one hand I miss total privacy and on the other hand I'm terribly lonesome.
My neck is hurting from bending my head over the computer. I have two little knots from it. I ordered books for my students next semester. I haven't read them yet so it's risky. I did order them for myself though so I'll formulate some kind of learning plan.
I kind of like the learning system here, how they switch things up every week. Last week was pretty bad. It was a two day workshop from 9-6 with some stern woman named Suzi. She was the kind of teacher who ignores students when they raise their hands, unless they're the ass kissing students who repeat what she says but rephrase it slightly. I only made it to a few hours of that workshop, thank god! I did do the readings and they were fairly interesting. Suzi is a little to obsessed with Derrida. If a person just follows the theories of one person how are they ever going to create any original way of thinking?
This class I'm sitting in on is called art and commemoration. The other students are going to Leuven to make anti-nazi art but I'm supposed to make a project here in Weimar with an advanced undergradute student named, Anki. I should give here a call, see what she's thinking. I think I'm the wrong person to be making art about the holocaust but I can tell you the things I was thinking of this earlier evening/morning whatever.
First I looked up Buchenwald. It means Beerch wood. It was a concentration camp that starved and worked all these people to death . Its nearby here. When the American military came in 1945 they rounded up a thousand or so citizens of Weimar and made them tour Buchenwald while there were all these dead people laying around.
I guess one of the big concerns of this class is dealing with cultural memory. How are people going to remember the Holocaust once no one is around who actually witnessed it somehow? I've already formed some links in my mind that could connect southerners and germans. Here are two things they had in common.
1. some people were being tortured and murdered based on ethnicity
2. were defeated in war
Ok the situations were totally different but the time difference is what I'm interested in. The american civil war was in 1865. WWII was in 1945. Today it is 2005. No one in my family remembers the days of slavery. The only civil war story that has been passed through my family has absolutely no mention of slavery. [inlink]robin,314[/inlink] and I didn't learn about the history of lynching until I was in college in atlanta. Actually I learned about it from an art show at the contemporary. In the main room they had huge wall sized photographs of KKK member's heads in their masks. It was disturbing because you could see the details of these kkk guy's very human eyes, very clearly. Then I walked into the other room and it had all of these old lynching photographs. One of them was taken in the county I grew up in. I learned from this web site that it was a custom to take photos for postcards. This is the only hanging story i ever heard growing up [inlink]robin,60[/inlink]
Ok, So I just spent an hour or two searching for this show art show from atlanta that introduced me to the south's drawn out bloody history but I can't find jack shit. It's making me wonder if I'm crazy but no I've decided everyone else is. And so.......
My thoughts about this Weimar, Holocaust stuff at the moment are centering around this woman, "The Witch of Buchenwald" as she compares to this woman, "The White Witch of Rose Hall". Now this has got me thinking about the different representations of human torture and malice. If anyone reads this and has time to look at the links about these two woman maybe you could hit me up with some comments and tell me how you think they compare. If it were up to Suzi, the Derrida loving teacher, the White Witch wouldn't even exist because she isn't authenticated.

this is something adam sent out. It's a good idea for a non traditional costume

I so want to be leigh brasington,
he even has audio recordings.

GOOGLE-IT!

. . . . .


RECIPE FOR A GOOGLE™ PARTY
Adam Overton, April 2005
originally presented on ZBZZ.com by Aaron Spafford

A Google™ Party is a costume party where the attendees dress up like people that they've located while "Googling™" their own name.

. . .

Go to google.com (or any other reliable online search engine) and search for instances of your full name, using quotation marks to keep the correct order: "John Doe". You're looking for webpages that mention or talk about a different person who has the same (or a similar) name as you.

If searching for the full name doesn't work, try using variations like "Jon Doe", "Johnny Doe", "Jonathan Doe"

If you still can't find a match, don't complain or give up - start getting creative:

Try reversing the names: "Doe John"
Include or substitute your middle name: "John Kenny Doe", "Kenny Doe", "John Kenny"
Try other genders: "Jane Doe"
Try out nicknames you had or wished you'd had: "Cooter Doe"
Add, subtract, scramble or reverse letters: "Jhon Doh", "Don Joe"
Try single names: "John" or "Doe"
Try using initials: "J. Doe", "J.D."
Etc.

There is no excuse for coming up empty handed.

. . .

After searching for a bit, choose the alter-ego that seems most interesting and try to figure out how this person might dress. Always check first to see if you can find any pictures of the person -- perhaps you can emulate some facial or bodily features. If no pictures are to be found, then use the content on the site to figure out what type of person you're dealing with -- businessman, athlete, porn star, frat boy, cheerleader, church elder, etc. Especially keep your eyes peeled for clues that might indicate a time period or location, especially if your source is a news article, historical document or obituary.

Finally, dress to impress at your next Google™ Party and live it up as your alter-ego.

. . .

VARIATION 1
Instead of the party, go about some or all of your day as your googled alter-ego.

VARIATION 2
Instead of the party, do a performance as your googled alter-ego.

Robin: There is a definite distrust of the Federal Government today in
the US. But you need to remember that there was also a distrust of the
founding fathers during and after the revolution. When you really
think
about it, it is not a distrust of the government, but distrust between
the different social classes that comprise any society. In short, this
distrust is a problem that first started when man came down out of the
trees and will continue until man no longer inhabits this earth.
Culture dictates how man acts, not politics.

-my dad

and so...


founded on distrust?

Happy late birthdays, ladies.
So I've been reading a bit about lilho's birthday and i think I must have been getting some psychic vibrations which directed me to party because I had a wild night last Friday. Here is the story. An Italian woman named Naomi, who is in my class, came to my flat to pick me up. I had purchased a bottle of sekt, sparkling champagne like wine, and we proceeded to drink a few glasses. Then we went off to find out other classmates. Before we found the others we stopped off at the liquor store and purchase some grass vodka (at my suggestion). The we went to sam's, british dudes, and I had a beer while waiting for dušica, a serbian woman, and Nickol, a greek dude. Then we drank the bottle of grass vodka and walked to the club. At this point I was already quite intoxicated. Upon arrival at the club i ordered a glass of straight vodka, drank it, order another then another. I also was buying the bartender a drink along with mine just because sometimes I feel a bit weird about not tipping so free drinks makes up for it.
I was wasted. In the room were my friends were there was a 80's reminiscent, cure sounding band with a guy in red panties acting like he was going to strip on the stage. I got excited and unbuttoned my shirt to encourage the guy to go on and drop his pants. Eventually I crawled/fell up onto the stage to just tell the guy, "I really think you should drop your pants and lets have some public nudity." After that I went into the other room and passed out on a bench. dušica sat watching over me and stroking my head. dušica, sam and I left shortly later. dušica invited us to her house for some grub annd we sat and ate and she told us it was ok and we could sleep in her bed. so I passed out on the bottom of a dušica sandwich.
In the morning I woke up and sam and dušica were not there. I put on my jacket and looked around for my bra. After realizing that I must have lost my br at the club I stumbled into the kitchen and dušica's flatmate and her 3 month old baby were have some breakfast. there was also some asian dude there. I was all where am I? Where is dušica? I was informed that dušica was in the shower. I told her goodbye through the door and was on my way out. I stopped by the store to get some water and an orange and I ran into sam. I told him I lost my bra and he was all, ha ha ha that's brilliant. Then I went back to my house where I realized that my night of excessive drinking had left me with some unsightly marks (perhaps from my glorious stumble up on the stage at the club.) I told my flatmates about my wild night and they were laughing and started telling their own old drinking memories in German. I went and passed out again.

The end

Oh a serious note, because I do take myself so very seriously, school here is kind of interesting. Reminds me allot of the work of Arzu and Perini. People are cool and I make a presentation in the morning of my video installation work.

so my computer is about to cut off not much time....

Last week I became very frustrated with this paper work visa crap so i stopped everything and went and got a bottle of jack and went home and drank it. I later found some video which incidentally, I don't remember shooting.









Later i went to Berlin and met my friend Bjorn and we hung out at some painters studio. Some crazy woman stopped in and smoked hash with us all night.









another day i was lounging by the riverside with my eyes closed and I felt something bite my bare foot. I jumped up and saw a rat in the water who quickly scurried out. I think that it fell out of the tree onto me.



I stayed in a youth hostel and there were always school kids on the corner in the day.



I finally got tired out and returned to my sweet home in weimar.











one thing i've learned is to stop shooting video when i am all blow.

hallo, ich komme aus der ew S ah.
So this whole language thing is killing me. It's so difficult to learn but still I learn other things everyday. For instance, americans are wasteful as all get out, you know? Here they recycle so well, they separate light glass from dark, paper from plastic and so on. Even the college students ar good about it. At the store you have to buy bags. We went to a supermarket and bought a crapload of stuff but we just put in in our recycling crates that we had there for the bottles.
So Weimar... quite town. Life is a little boring at the moment. for the past couple of days I've been sitting in the kitchen smoking and conjugating verbs. I have a class in the morning, Monday through Friday. My flatmate, Albrecht is working on some huge essay thing. I'm trying to be a bad influence but he's a down to earth guy so it's hard. I'm not supposed to smoke in my room and it's so fucking cold in the kitchen. It may drive me crazy. I did smoke a few days but word got around to France and so Albrecht scolded me. God damn non-smokers! but... there is a nark in the apt. that is good to know. ah, living with others. I'm learning how to do that again. It was easier with my old strung out roomies in the Atl. Well, it was easy for a little while anyway.
Drum and Bass, bump bump bump bump bump bump Bump BUMP,
yeeeAh
Well, it's not for me but vivian did take me go to a drum and bass party. It took me right back to my undergrad days. I'm not to fond of drum and bass. Everyone danced the same, you know? All this leg stuff. The last time I saw dancing like that it was 4 or 5 years ago. I was at aphrodite rave. I was on LSD and I had a press pass. precious memories. So the Drum and Bass set me against this club but then I missed out on hip-hop with some guys from the far syde because my roomie tilo said I'm going to the club you don't like and I was like, have fun. The next day I learned it was a hip-hop show from some dude at a student bar. I have to learn to ask more question I guess. Nein to Drum and Bass, Ja to hip-hop.
The election was yesterday. I went with Albrecht when he cast his vote. Everyone thinks the christian democrates will win but most of the young people I've met are not in favor of that. The very word Christian in a political party freaks the shit out of me you know? but it looks like angie will win. It's very disappointing politics. I'm sure capital will fuck us all eventually, on an international level. How comforting.
So on a lighter note her are a few stills form a week or two ago when I drank to much and accidently brought some dude home with me. This is the dude.

He was totally wasted and only spoke german and russian for the most part. He latched onto me though and insisted on walking me home and I wasn't so sure how to blow him off nicely when I couldn't tell him what i ment. I was wasted as well, that was my problem. next time some dude is all touchy feely I have use some gestures. We were in the holy kitchen. This is slightly distrubing to ne but I guess I can wear my, my heart belongs to Satan tee to counteract the holy spirit in my flat. The kitchen has a huge painting of mary one one wall and then on another wall is this picture of mary, joeseph and the baby jesus. I wonder what the baby jesus thought about the two drunks in the bottom of this picture?

This is vivian, my female flatmate. She's so pretty and has a nice laugh. She is young and crazy. I like her. I wish she wasn't so attached to Jena, her home town. Some people are like that I guess. Ok enough for now. Later y'all

Hey from Weimar,

Germany is nice. Where is it that you stayed, Paul and Terry? Weimar is a small town. My flatmates are nice. They are all from a town called Jena that is 20 minutes away. I've become addicted to Weißbeir but my flatmates like vodka. They are hardcore. Berlin was awesome. I stayed there for a while when I first arrived. It was a good transition from Buffalo, to Adairsville, to Berlin to my new flat in Weimar. The flat here is very cool. France has good taste. Maybe I'll meet her sometime. In the mean time I'm attempting to learn German speaking but I'm not doing so well. It's hard. I start a workshop this week, maybe that will help. Ich haben to go, no ahhh, that's not it, later y'all. Flögen flies? something Was es Das?