(no subject)

Ai wasn't just accepted into the Berlin Academy of Arts, he also was offered a position as visiting professor at the University of the Arts. Germans donated about a million euros ($1.4 million) to help the commercially successful artist pay an alleged tax debt of 1.7 million euros. Germany was the only place that Ai was greeted with this strange, almost religious glorification. Why Germans are that way is worth an entire text of its own. (What's next in the case for Ai Weiwei?)

dw continues to be my stealth fave news site. it'll be a pity if i have to quit it for a month or two if germany takes the title, which i have a nagging suspicion they will.

* http://37.media.tumblr.com/3a0a6e37fd4c7e65a431ce395f307caf/tumblr_n783m4dNRI1qb2wsio1_1280.jpg - if i had a tennis icon rn, it would be a crop of andy's face in this pic.

* my first thought when i found out spain was out of the wc (which i did right after i left the theater yesterday from the two girls ahead of me on the escalator - "os bonitinhos perderam de 2-0 :("/"the cute ones lost 2-0 :(") was about how this would potentially affect rafa's state of mind.

...then i remembered that the next slam is wimbledon and that he'll never win that one again, so it doesn't really matter.