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Excerpt from "Remarks at the Glass Wall"
35 East 12th st.
August 5, 2008
This speech was delivered to a group of people listening to Berlin,
yet it was also audible to those in the bathroom.
2,703 words
Thank you very much.
My friends in PubNight: Thirty-four years ago, a child by the name of Lauren Baltimore was born unto relatively obscure academic parents who will receive no further mention in this speech other than this sentence which I now have completed (other than I would be very very unhappy had said child not been born unto... etc...). Well, since then she grew up, co-opted the nickname TK, and started drinking - I, myself have imbibed with her many times.
We come to PubNight, we PubNight-ers, because it's our duty to drink freely, although usually not for free. But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things as well: the need for ritual, something to do on wednesday, job hunting, vetting dates; most of all, by TK herself. Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood something about TK. You see, we come here today for a singular reason: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, meine Liebe.
Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout the west side of this apartment, and the kitchen too. To those listening on the far side of the apartment where there is no air conditioning, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in bars all over the place, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Ist nicht so, dass mein Bier? [Isn't that my beer?]
ok - so that's about as far as I'm going to go with the "Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall" theme - I actually wrote another 6 paragraphs, but I am often accused of writing rather long pn emails... see http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/wall.asp for the full text of the original speech (and for those of you who think I'm just copying crap from Regan's speech willy nilly - Lincke wrote the operetta 'Frau Luna' - and I think that describes TK pretty damn well - so there... nyaa...)
I am honored to invite you all to our home for TK's birthday PubNight - There's booze-a-plenty (as far as I know - although no mixers), but probably little beer since it's all here with me - so you'll have to bring some if you have a hanker-n for that sweet sweet nectar. Hopefully, TK will have turned on the ice maker by now in preparation for tomorrow. Basically, bring what you want to drink.
- sieht Sie
your triumvirate
Jocelyn, Rebecca, Cindy, Mike, Petro, Jay, Kris, Stuart and sometimes
Laura
(glow little glow worm...)