Seb and the City

Supermodel Leftovers

Another Brazilian connection: Today I had the honor of eating the leftovers of Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen. My roommate Payam was assisting at a photo shoot for Victoria's Secret and he brought home some of the catering stuff. He said Gisele was obnoxious and arrogant and her little dog shitted everywhere. The food was pretty good, though.

George Bush in Vienna

George W. Bush just visited Vienna. There were quite some tensions between him and Europeans, as the New York Times reports. The Times article actually mentions this week's cover story of profil that I collaborated on: "The Mad World of George W. Bush"

Brazilian Party

For the World Cup match of Brazil versus Australia Christian and I went to Ironbound, a purely Brazilian and Portugese neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. Although the match wasn't great and Brazil had actually some trouble winning against the soccer rookies from Down Under, the Brazilian crowd erupted into heavy partying under the scorching sun right after the match. I hope my pictures and Christian's sound files convey some of the atmosphere. Though to really enjoy it, you should probably have as many beers and caipirinhas as we had!

Seb - He rocks!

I'm making an impact in New York. In Manhattan's Meatpacking District graffiti artists are paying homage to me ;) Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Freak Show

It's been already two weeks since I went to Chicago. A bunch of 9/11 conspiracy theorists organized a big conference there. They are all absolutely convinced that the US government and its intelligence services orchestrated the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Some of their arguments - which they spread in the internet through well-made documentaries - sound interesting. So I went to Chicago to check out if there was anything behind their claims. Well, there isn't. You just had to talk to one of the more than 500 participants to notice that they were COMPLETELY nuts.

Actually they don't really believe it was George Bush who organized 9/11. It was rather the Illuminati, the Jesuits or the Jews, depending on who you ask. The lectures at the conferece had titles like "The Rapid Induction of Mass-Hypnotic Trance on 9/11: How to Break the Spell". Any further questions?

If you want to read the article I wrote about the conference for profil magazine: Download p24_098_9_11_3.pdf

Rude Awakening

The US national team had its first appearance in the World Cup yesterday. Ahead of the game against the Czech republic Americans were getting excessively optimistic, seeing themselves already as a World Cup winners a few years down the line. Well, such hopes were brutally shattered by three Czech goals that put American soccer back into perspective. Here in New York soccer slowly seems to become hip: Some Americans consider it to be a cool European thing. But another defeat like this, and they'll probably turn back to baseball and American football...

I watched the game in Manhattan's most famous soccer pub, the Nevada Smith's. Among all the American fans there was one Czech girl that cheered loudly. Does that story sound familiar?

Puerto Rican Day Parade

Today the huge Puerto Rican Day Parade took place on Fifth Avenue, stretching up all the way from 44th Street up along Central Park to 86th Street. Every year New York's Puerto Ricans - the Nuyoricans - present themselves in an extremely colourful and musical event as literally hundreds of thousands of them fill the streets. Puerto Ricans are one of the biggest minorities in New York. Jennifer Lopez - who showed up at the parade - is just one example.

Strangely enough nobody seems to know much about Puerto Rico. The Carribean island (4 million inhabitants) is de facto a colony of the US: Puerto Ricans have US citizenship but are not allowed to vote in national elections. (They don't have to pay federal income taxes, either.) The US governments has used parts of Puerto Rico to test all kinds of weapons. Between the 1930ies and the 1970ies the US authorities sterilized up to one third of all Puerto Rican women as a population control measure - the highest proportion in the whole world.

Fortunately the plan doesn't seem to have worked: Incredible amounts of young happy Puerto Ricans lined Fifth Avenue today shouting proudly: "Yo soy Boricua, pa' que tu lo sepas!" - "I'm Boricua, just so you know!" Boricua is the Spanish slang term for Puerto Ricans.

Hollywood actress Rosie Perez has made a documentary by the same name that has just opened in the cinemas. I saw it at the Tribeca Film Festival a few weeks ago. Watch it if you ever get a hold of it - it's great and very positive for all the grim history!

Start of the World Cup in New York

The start of the soccer World Cup has not gone without notice in New York. Surprisingly many bar show the matches, but it's mainly immigrants watching. For the Poland vs. Ecuador match I went to the Sports Bar Polonia in Green Point, Brooklyn, together with FM4's Christian Lehner. Green Point is a completely Polish neighborhood: All the posters on the streets are in Polish, you can buy local Polish newspapers and if you enter a Café (and look like we do), people talk Polish to you.

It might be a Polish cliché, but the mood among the crowd in the bar was gloomy from the beginning and went downwards from there. At the World Cup I'm always surprised about how many national clichés turn out to be true. When the Polish team hit the post twice in the last few minutes that expressed the tragic feel of the afternoon nicely.

There were only three happy people in the bar: Christian and I found the Polish beer awesome, but that's a different (and rather long) story. And a good looking Ecuadorian girl wearing the colors of her team cheered loudly at Ecuador's two goals. If she had been an ugly old man, she would probably have been beaten up.

The Religious Left

In the last few years there was a lot of talk about the power of the Religious Right in the US, especially ultraconservative Protestants trying to influence social policy concerning abortion or gay rights. I have just written an article about a kind of counter-movement, the Religious Left - yes, it exists, it is more about poverty, peace and the environment and it is gaining force. Hillary Clinton is already wooing these voters.

One version of my article was published by profil (I'll upload it soon), another one appeared on Spiegel Online. On Sunday it was even Spiegel Online's main headline for a few hours!

I'll tell you more about the religiousness of Americans soon.

Thunderstorm

An incredible thunderstorm washed through the City a few days ago, thunder and flashes exploding over Manhattan and Brooklyn, curtains of water falling from the dark sky. It hit me while I was jogging along the East River. I couldn't help but laugh loudly - it was an awesome experience, like being caught in a gigantic washing machine. I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it. Everybody I talked to loved to watch it from windows or fire escapes.

A humid heat had been building up the days before, and the thunderstorm finally seemed to relieve the pressure and to wash the dirt out of the city, as if a huge valve had been opened. People enjoyed the fact that the powers of nature made themselves felt. In the concrete desert of New York you don't notice nature much. You don't even know you are missing it until it forces itself upon you.