I don’t cut myself … „den Wenfall weglassen“ … Rollins online 1st of April, 2006 POST·MERIDIEM 08:44

I can’t say I ever like getting my hair cut at hairdressers, and today was a vivid example of why this is. Trusting someone to cut your hair when, despite working in the field, she’s got someone to cut her own black hair in kind of a bowl on the top of her head, but leaving it long at the back on one side, and dying the end white, so the overall impression it triggers is “post-apocalyptic famine victim—feed, but stand back, she’ll claw you if you approach too close”; it’s a bit of a leap of faith for me, and I think this with good reason. (You’ll notice I’m not posting a photo of my new haircut.)

Unrelated to the quality of her hairdressing, for the theoretical „Hast du einen Gutschein?“, she said [ˈhastuənˈgutʃain]. From this I take that the accusative is dying here in colloquial German, if it was ever really in full health—while [ən] is fine as an unstressed pronunciation of „ein“, it’s not for „einen“, normally rendered [nən]. I’ve noticed this a few times before, but wasn’t as certain of it; one time in particular, the dubbing for a movie did it, I asked my German flatmate of the time (with whom I was watching the movie) about it, and she was dismissively certain that the dubbers must have got it right.

I’m annoyed that I missed Henry Rollins in Berlin this tour, especially after reading this in his journal:

I saw all these shows and other things all at once at the beginning of January and wondered how I would get to April 1st. I am almost there. I like the idea of having a schedule that you try to survive. I’ll take that over enjoyment any time.

The actual journal is at http://​21361.​com/​site_2004/​main_dispatches.​html , and while it’s diverting, it’s not on the level of his spoken word tours.

Word of the day: Энержи is one way of saying “energy” in Tajik, to no-one’s surprise.