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Category Archives: Stories

Six Spring Tweets
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April 1, 2013 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

Social media ‘haikus’ on my blog — my motto for spring comes from Wikimedia; the caption for the photograph said: «Old beggar of Tangier, Morocco singing a monotonous, wailing chant to attract the attention of the passers-by. He is a cheerful soul, however, and a pleasant contrast to some of the members of his brotherhood who capitalize their deformities.» — This could be me waiting for Thank You For Your Sperm. [Continue reading]

Category: Stories, The Picture Goers | Tags: 19th century, Beggar, Bertolucci, Brando, Charles Baudelaire, H. C. Andersen, hypnosis, Jorge Luis Borges, Milton Erickson, paris, Samurai, Schneider, Tangier, trance, tweet, twitter, Wikimedia
The breath of death
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March 19, 2013 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

“An achievement in art or in letters grows more interesting when we perceive its connections.” Henry James. In honor of …
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Category: Commentary, Podcast, Stories, TYFYS | Tags: A-minor, asthma, life, Nicolette Wong, Shel Compton, suicide, TYFYS, William Blake
A Small Boy
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March 14, 2013 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

A couple of days ago the book “The novels of Henry James” by Edward Wagenknecht arrived at my door. My …
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Category: Guest Post, Podcast, The Picture Goers | Tags: art, audio, bathtub, brain, Edward Wagenknecht, Henry James, Painting, prose, Sargent, small boy
The Rat King
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January 20, 2013 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

The man stopped reading. The girl looked at him: “Did you honestly think, daddy that this story would scare me? …
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Category: Stories | Tags: D@ Serge, Halloween, Jules Archer, Julie Innis, Meg Tuite, Rat King, Susan Tepper
The Imagination of Matter
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October 30, 2012 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

All art is competition: to begin with there is the artist competing with her art’s own inner image. She imagined …
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Category: Goings-on, Stories, The Picture Goers | Tags: art, Bachelard, berlin, books, Carlye Birkenkrahe, creativity, exhibition, HWR Berlin, imagination, library, paintings, Picture
hipsters having sex
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September 22, 2012 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

Speh: «An egg-headed, shoulderless man, a creature from a Beckett novel perhaps, who had a heavy gold coin in his …
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Category: 100 Days Of Summer, Metafiction, Stories, The Picture Goers, Writerly Advice | Tags: 100 days 2012, Hipster, puritanism, sex
elephant men
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September 1, 2012 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

There was a time when we were all elephant men. Sure, it wasn’t always easy to negotiate two such different …
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Category: 100 Days Of Summer, Stories, The Picture Goers | Tags: 100 days 2012, drawint, elephant man, Picture
humanity
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August 26, 2012 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

After many years of war, Men and Giants finally reached an agreement: the Giants would stay in the cities, and …
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Category: 100 Days Of Summer, Stories, The Picture Goers | Tags: berlin, Borofsky, humanity, Spree
un roseau pensant
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August 21, 2012 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

Everywhere nature is now growing so rapidly that it gets harder and harder to squeeze it in a parable. It meanders from the poetic out …
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Category: 100 Days Of Summer, Goings-on, Stories | Tags: 100 days 2012, hamburg, Pascal
The Blue Rider
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August 15, 2012 by Marcus Speh (Birkenkrahe)

Hey man, you want to know how my day went? I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you good. I hacked into …
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Category: 100 Days Of Summer, Stories | Tags: 100 days 2012, 1912, Blauer Reiter, expressionism, Franz Marc, Story

Click pic to order...

«At a party, I stood next to a bald guy with a beard who didn’t say anything. I noticed a nearby couple put their heads together and whisper while pointing at me. They were smiling so I went over and inquired if I could help them in any way. “No, not at all,” said the woman, “but listen, isn’t that Sir Salman Rushdie who stood next to you just now? We’re such fans.” The man nodded.»

Excerpt from: My Friend Salman Rushdie, in: Pachydermini Pack 4 (Turtleneck Press); donation dependent download.

«Tara, I look at us in that photo, taken so many years ago, I look at you sandwiched between Tom and me, with our left arms in casts, so ridiculous, it makes me think of music that is ridiculous also, music by Charles Ives with two bands playing against one another, or two melodies backpacking a third, or an instrument entering a dialog of two other instruments like a dangerous stranger. It makes me think of your musical voice and your rich hair, Tara, I’m thinking of you as my ship begins the landing process.»

Excerpt from: Friends, in: In Those Days We, available online at Issuu. Paperback version to appear.

Now at Amazon as paperback and on Kindle. See also goodreads.

The Reviews | Update: Alana Angelina Thompson @Facebook @matthw_rbsn @Goodreads bit.ly/12KoctJ 6 hours ago
Beach Sloth: Thank You for Your Sperm by Marcus Speh —@please comment! bit.ly/slothspeh 6 hours ago
RT @Xiane: The Xiane Daily is out! paper.li/Xiane ▸ Top stories today via @krautflash 6 hours ago
Old books smell like grass + vanilla pinterest.com/pin/2635310156… 6 hours ago
My new collection "Thank You For Your Sperm" is out from MadHat Press now — also at Amazon.: lnkd.in/xVb_iJ 6 hours ago