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GHETTO COWBOY...the MUSICAL

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 19:31:08 GMT

I LOVE this music video featuring the men and boys of Fletcher St, where GHETTO COWBOY takes place. AMAZING!

In Praise of Librarians

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 17:11:00 GMT

Just let me say off the bat: I would not be here without librarians. Libraries have given me a career. Libraries have been my refuge in new cities. Librarians have put my books into the hands of kids who may not have found them. And it was a librarian who gave me the book that turned me into a reader.

I spent this past weekend surrounded by them at the YALSA conference in St. Louis. The love was palpable. In the first hour, librarians would spot me and make a beeline to take pictures, give praise, tell me about how they couldn't keep my books on their shelves. They even confused my brother in arms, Torrey Maldonado, for me (to be fair, he's a little better looking). And then the Book Blitz started and they lined up for an hour to tell me their individual stories and how one of my books made them cry at the reference desk or something amazing like that.

It was enough to make me think that maybe I'm doing something worthwhile.

Then came our panel: Guys Talking to Guys with my buddies Andrew Smith, Torrey, and Antony John. The amazing aspect of it (besides that it was packed to the gills) was the addition of 4 young male readers who had the guts and personality to outshine these outspoken authors. These young'uns pretty much stole the show, which is hard to do because we said a lot of compelling things too. It was kind of shocking, for once, not to have just the adults talking about how teens feels or think. What a revelation: they told us themselves!

It was powerful, funny, poignant and a rocking good time.

All credit is due to the amazing YA librarian of STPL, Carrie Dietz. I have met wonderful librarians all over this country, but she may be the best. Her dedication to books and students is awe-inspiring. She has given so many book talks at so many schools that when I heard the number, I knew it had to be wrong, but I also knew it to be true. She works with juvenile detention facilities and Title 1 schools and gets folks like me to come out to StL over and over (this was my third time). She even showed me the world that became the subject of the novel I am working on right now. So she's not just affecting how I relate to readers, she affects my actual writing.

If there is to be a YA goddess of librarians, I nominate her.

In between, just hanging out with Andrew, Antony, and Torrey was a blast. We ate, we drank, we hung out at Sweetie Pies with fake Diana Ross and Samuel Jackson. Antony put me and Torrey up, without ever having met us, and didn't live to regret it (thanks, man)! I got to take Drew up into the Arch and scare the tar out of him, which is hard to do (hey, when that elevator door closed, even I panicked). We're all so different, but all connected by the power and inspiration of what we do. That a good gang to belong to.

Someone remarked that soon I'll be looking for a second home there. Not a bad idea...

Writer's London

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:35:10 GMT

Staying in London's Bloomsbury district can be quite humbling for a writer.

Charles Dickens lived across the street from here. Virginia Woolf, John Maynard, and EM Forster all lived in the neighborhood. Karl Marx drank himself silly here.

Two blocks away, I am writing this from the British Library where I just saw the original handwritten and illustrated book that Lewis Carroll gave his daughter Alice (of the Wonderland fame).

Next to it were the original longhand scribblings of JK Rowling's Harry Potter.

Next to those was an original watercolor painting by JRR Tolkien for The Hobbit.

And next that were the original handwritten prose of the greatest writers of the western world: Dickens, Joyce, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, Jane Austin, Bronte (x2), Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Blake, Orwell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Du Maurier, Eliot, Waugh, Kipling, Hardy, Auden, Lawrence,Wordsworth,Pinter, Woolf, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Joyce's Ulysses

And next to that: original handwritten sheet music from Beethoven, Mozart, Handle, Brahms and some lovely scribbled lyrics from the Beatles.

Oh and something called the friggin' Magna Carta.

At Westminister Abbey, you can stand on the graves of Dickens, Chaucer, Tennyson, Kipling, and Hardy. As Keanu would say: Whoa.

In addition, I had my Monty Python moment where I saw Michael Palin being interviewed by Karl Marx at Foyles.

And finally, I had the pleasure of seeing Mark Haddon, author of one of my favorite YA novels The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime speak at the London Literature Festival. He did not give your standard author talk but an intimate, inspiring performance piece that illuminated some profound ideas about writing to me.

So what's a writer to do in the shadows of all this greatness. Get inspired. Go out and ply your trade. Write. And whatever you do, don't compare yourself to these other blokes. Just do what you do and get on with it.

Me trying to research my Jack the Ripper story

Amazing Day

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 13:16:16 GMT

wow.

I was not expecting this.

Yesterday, many amazing things happened.

I received an award. It looks like this.

It is called the Upstander Award. I love this word. I realized this is what I am. Instead of being a writer, I think I will become a full-time Upstander. I like breaking rules.

I got my first standing ovation. A room full of people stood for me, and it went on and on for so long I did not know what to do with myself. My parents and my best friend and his wife were in the front row.

I had lunch with one of my real heroes, the amazing Father Greg Boyle, a true LA visionary, founder of Homeboys Industries and the author of the profoundly moving memoir, Tattoos on the Heart.

I am a tough guy but his stories of gang members in LA bring tears to my eyes. He has been an inspiration to so many people for so long that it shocked me when he asked me for advice. As people came up to me to talk to me about how much my talk moved them, I was like, this guy across from me is the real inspiration. He humbles me in ways I will never be able to equal. Ever. I may be a former Catholic but I want to join Homeboys Industries, like now.

Afterwards, I told him the gang kids both call us G. He hugged me and said we are brothers in name.

I met some amazing kids from the Compton Jr Posse Youth Equestrian program. These are the LA version of Ghetto Cowboys, only their program is tied to academics. These kids are also an inspiration. They will go to college and become someone. I am 100% sure of this. We are bonded by horses.

Later, I gave a reading in front of a crowd that was made up of MFA writing students and the super rich. One woman was so rich, she dressed like she was on her way to the ball-- diamond jewelry, gold shoes and a huge puffy white dress with bright red hair styled like an ice sculpture. I wanted to say, Really? My mom reminded me of what I had said earlier that day: that I try to teach kids to look past the surface for the real human being. I nodded, threw away my judgements and enjoyed reading my ghetto words to them. They seemed to dig it. They laughed in all the right places, grew quiet in all those places too. I also noticed some big time Hollywood producers in the audience. I sent them messages via telepathy that they should make a movie of Ghetto Cowboy with Will Smith. I don't know if they heard me.

No, not like that.

In my talks that day, I choked up a few times telling stories of kids I've encountered through my books. Its hard to be a tough guy when you do that. Maybe I am getting emotional in my old age. Or maybe these kids are worth fighting for.

Thank you Antioch University for your mission to shine a light on issues of social justice and for picking my little book as an example that we should all stand up for our beliefs and communities. It was not just another day of talks.

It was an amazing day.

My encounter with Ray Bradbury

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:57:34 GMT

This morning, Ray Bradbury passed away. Like many who lived in LA, Bradbury seemed to be everywhere. The man never slowed down. And like a few lucky ones, I somehow managed to have my own an encounter with Ray.

Back when I was at UC Santa Cruz, I made a film called A Picasso on the Beach. When it began showing on HBO, someone alerted me to an obscure Ray Bradbury story called In a Season of Calm Weather (which I just now found out was also made into a feature film called Picasso Summer with Albert Finney!). Well, I had no memory of reading it and was horrified to think I might had pilfered without permission. I found the story and yes, both my film and his story were about an encounter with Picasso on a beach where he draws an image in the sand and the protagonist watches this masterpiece wash away.

I had never in my life read this little masterpiece, but maybe somebody had told me about it long ago and I just forgot the reference. So I knew I needed to do something about it.

I needed to find Ray Bradbury.

It didn't take long. Ray was always doing readings around LA and I happen to track him down at one in Hollywood. I explained the situation and gave him a copy of the movie, hoping he wouldn't sue my ass off. He was very gracious.

At the time, I was an up and comer in Hollywood (read:I was a runner for a studio post production facility). It was a meager existence and I was at the bottom of the totem pole, taking my boss's car to get washed or fixing his tennis shoes. He knew nothing of my immense talent as a future directing superstar, but one day, while I was in his office getting berated, an announcement came over the PA system.

"Call for Greg Neri, Line 2. It's Ray Bradbury."

I looked at my boss and smiled. "Excuse me. Ray is calling." and walked out head held high.

That alone was worth it. But then talking to Ray on the phone was even better. Ray was very down to earth and encouraging. He had no problem with my film. Thought it was great-- totally different than his story and he gave me his blessing. We chatted for a few minutes but by then, I was off floating in the clouds somewhere else.

So here's to Ray Bradbury, a master storyteller and a true Angeleno. Now he really is in the city of angels.

Walking in Johnny Cash's footsteps

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:36:43 GMT

Sometimes research can be thrilling. For my upcoming book Hello, I'm Johnny Cash, I flew up to attend what would have been the Man in Black's 80th birthday party, held in his tiny boyhood town of Dyess, AK, a New Deal farming community. In attendance were about 100 of Johnny's relatives including his brother Tommy, sister Joanne, daughters Rosanne, Kathy, and Cindy, and son John Carter. Everyone else seemed to be from this tiny town of 400. Rosanne sang, John Carter sang, Tommy and Joanne too, capped with a couple of rousing Johnny Cash songs sung by the whole extended family group. Joanne played her mother's original piano that was in their childhood home, which is now being restored to it former glory as a heritage museum spot. It was incredibly precious and unique and I felt privileged to even be there.

But that was only part of it. The rest of the weekend I spent walking in Johnny's footsteps throughout Memphis and Dyess. It was an amazing experience to stand behind his desolate childhood home, with its endless horizons, the winds howling all around and not a soul in sight as far as the eye could see. I stood in the isolated country cemetery where he helped bury his brother and best friend Jack, at age 12. I walked that long endless road to town where nights were pitch black and filled with the sounds of wild panthers.

I visited the spot where he first met Elvis. I held the actual microphone at Sun Records that he sang into for his first recordings, from Hey Porter, Folsom Prison Blues and I Walk the Line.

Stood on the park stage shell where he sang his first big show in front of his family and friends as he opened for Elvis. Visited the building where he first met mechanics Luther and Marshall, who became his band, the Tennessee Two. Saw the house Rosanne was raised in, the appliance shop where he held his first job, the church where he sang in public for the first time, the high school where he saw his first live concert and decided that was the life for him. Plus, I spotted evidence of Ray Liotta at Graceland.

Throw in the astonishing National Civil Rights Museum, which incorporates the motel where MLK was killed and the assassin's flophouse shooter's spot (with all the evidence from that day in tact) and it was an unforgettable weekend.

To top it off, I was able to stay with my friend Susanne who I hadn't seen in 30 years! It was an awe inspiring time and while much of the places (and us) had changed, much was exactly the way it was, just older. Like me.

End of year wrap up

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:13:45 GMT

Ok, having survived New Years Eve without blowing myself up, I can safely look back at 2011 and say, What a year. Aside from not blogging much, it has been a remarkable period, perhaps my best ever as a writer.

For those of you who've heard that nobody is buying new projects, let me refute: I sold more this year than I ever did before. I sold a new novel, my first ever picture book, and two short stories.

I had my latest novel, Ghetto Cowboy, come out.

My previous book, Yummy, did crazy business, getting all kinds of national awards and notices that you probably only get once in your lifetime.

I also lived in Berlin for a year, a remarkable time that I think back on fondly.

Count me as grateful for my family and friends and the fact that one can live the way you want to live: being creative and being surrounded by all kinds of lovely people, both in person and online. Thank you all.

And may 2012 bring great things to all of you!

Upcoming events!

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:09:34 GMT

Ok, I've been a bad blogger but I've been crazy busy! And it'll be even crazy for the next month because I'll doing many events in Florida and California. If you are in one of these places, come on by and say hi!

FCTE - Orlando, Oct. 14-15
Teen Reads Week - Tampa/St. Pete, Oct. 17-22
Monday, October 17
8:30-9:30 AM
John F Germany Library
900 N Ashley Dr, Tampa 33602

10:15-11:15 AM
Jimmie B Keel Library
2902 W Bearss Ave, Tampa 33618

12:00-1:00 PM
Town ‘n Country Library
7606 Paula Dr, Tampa 33615

Tuesday, October 18

9:00 AM
Instructional Services Center (ISC)
2920 N 40^th St, Tampa 33605 Rm 102
Magnet Middle School & High School Students

1:00 PM
ISC Rm 102
Middle School Students

6:00 PM
Dunedin Public Library
223 Douglas Avenue, Dunedin 34698
(727) 298-3080

Wednesday, October 19
9:30 AM
Carwise Middle School
3301 Bentley Drive, Palm Harbor 34684
(727) 724-1442

1:30 PM
Largo Public Library
120 Central Park Drive, Largo 33771
(727) 587-6715

6: 30 PM
Safety Harbor Public Library
101 Second Street N, Safety Harbor 34695
(727) 724-1525

Thursday, October 20
7:05 AM
Osceola High School
9751 – 98^th Street N, Seminole 33777
(727) 547-7717

9:30 AM
Tarpon Springs Middle School
501 N. Florida Avenue, Tarpon Springs 34689
(727) 943-5511

12:45 PM
Dixie Hollins High School
4940 – 62^nd Street N, Pinellas Park 33709
(727) 547-7876
Inkwood Books - Tampa, Oct. 25, Time: 6pm
Bridge to Books - L.A., Oct. 30, 1-4pm
LAUSD Schools, TBA
Museum of Tolerance/Simon Wiesenthal Center - L.A, Nov. 6 & 8
SCBWI regional conference - Miami, Jan. 14-16
Read It Forward - St. Louis, March 14

GHETTO COWBOY RIDES!

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:39:02 GMT

Finally, 18 months after basically finishing this book, GHETTO COWBOY is out TODAY!!

Its been a long but very rewarding journey, probably my favorite of my books, both in experience and in the final product. I personally think its the best I've done, but what do I know? I'm like a dad saying "He could be the next Hank Aaron!"

But I am saying, if you get this book, I guarantee a rewarding experience or I will buy you another book!

Rise up and ride on!

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:59:22 GMT

Finally, here is the awesome video trailer for my newest novel GHETTO COWBOY, cut together by my amazing filmmaker friend, Steven Lovy (www.stevenlovy.com). The book is out August 9! Enjoy!

For more info, visit http://gregneri.com/cowboy.html

SIGNUP TO WIN A FREE COPY OF GHETTO COWBOY!

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:12:04 GMT

3 MORE WEEKS TILL GHETTO COWBOY RIDES!

WIN A SIGNED COPY HERE!

Today I found out a dear friend was killed in a terrorist bombing-- 9 years ago.

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:57:04 GMT

Like a cold-case mystery coming to a close, Facebook provided the connection. Suzanne, like a lot of voices from the past, just popped up on my FB page. She had been part of a group of American exchange students I had once journeyed to Switzerland with back in 1981. We messaged back and forth and during our excited exchange about our old friends in the group, she dropped this one me:

Diane Carter was dead.

Of all the members of the group, Diane had been the one I was closest to. A sweet southern girl from Greensboro, NC, to me she was a Mayberry type kid, daughter of a veterinarian. We wrote a lot (back when people actually wrote letters), called, and saw each other a few times in the subsequent years.

In 1990, she told me she was moving to Los Angeles. I was excited. She didn’t know anyone there except me.

What I didn’t know was that in her years at Duke University, she had met a new boyfriend and would soon convert to Judaism and disappear forever. The only time I saw her in LA, she and her man came out to the beach with me and my friends. It was awkward. He was orthodox and uncomfortable with our friendship. She seemed distant, out of place. We said we would talk soon, but shortly after, she vanished without a trace. Trying to track her down, even her parents didn’t know where she was.

For 20-some years this has been bothering me. I had no closure, no way of knowing what happened to her until I read this article on her death:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59488,00.html

Wow. It is entirely possible that I was the last person of her former life to see her, including her family. And to be killed like that... that's heavy. But I will never understand the fervor that converts have for disavowing their former lives. As far as I knew, she had a decent, if boring life, growing up. She was not unloved or abused. She was happy go lucky. And we never had a bad moment between us. And yet, I never saw or spoke to her again. As a parent, I couldn't imagine undergoing this experience. I remember the pleas from her mother to let her know if I heard anything from Diane.

But I hope she was happy. I hope she found herself. As I write this, I am in Amsterdam where the last image I will keep in my head of her took place. We had spent our last couple of days in Amsterdam with our group, getting locked out of our hostel and sleeping in Vondelpark next to a bonfire.
The next day, as the group said goodbye one by one, we were the last two to go. We sat on a bench for a long time waiting. When her train came, so did the tears in her eyes. She cried long and hard. I put her on the train. A goofy grin appeared on her face and she waved goodbye out her window until the train disappeared from sight.

Now I can say one last time: goodbye Diane Carter. I glad I knew you.

Karnival in Cologne!

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:30:09 GMT

Well, it's freezing cold out, but that doesn't stop the hearty partiers of Cologne from enjoying their most beloved tradition: Karnival!

A week long festival of non-stop craziness (think Mardi Gras for Northeners) and we had to go relive some of my wife's favorite memories. Lots of singing in arms, drinking of Kölsch, shouting for candy, and dressing up in crazy costumes in a festival that originally started as a way to make fun of the French who had conquered Cologne way back when. Below is a taste that culminated in the Rose Monday parade with well over a million and a half people squeezed into these tiny streets...

The South

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:43:49 GMT

I've been doing a lot of research on the South for my new project and have read many great books, including Confederates in the Attic, Dixie, and Dixie Rising. But Susan Campbell Bartoletti's They Called Themselves the KKK is a masterful history of the organization that packs many surprises.

Foremost, it provides ample evidence that the roots of today's current political rants of many Tea Partying, extremist reactionaries spring directly from the politics of the Reconstruction. Much of the fear-mongering dialogue is almost verbatim: state's rights, the evils of big government and taxation, fear of minority power stealing jobs, the revisionist history. Much of today's rants never made sense to me until it was connected here. The South hated the Federalists who occupied the South during Reconstruction and had to intervene again after the terror reign of the KKK, in order to ensure the Civil RIghts Act of 1871 and enforce the 14th amendment.

The big shocker is to see that back then, the Republicans were the party of change and civil rights and the Democrats were the reactionary blowhards who looked backwards. How times have changed. That change occurred during Nixon's diabolical Southern Strategy where he convinced those Democrats that white power really lay on the side of the modern day Republican party.

The book is devastating in its simple recounting of the rise of terror that the Klan created and what freedom seeking people had to endure, both black and white. The Civil War may have ended in 1865, but the victories did not begin to take place until 100 years later. The South has come a long ways since, but still the Lost Cause manages to rear its ugly head. With the election of a black President, suddenly, a lot of that ugliness came tumbling out. Racism disguised as rhetoric from birthers or radical Tea Partiers or TV and radio hosts are just one step removed from the vile of the early Klan. As one survivor of the Klan's wrath stated: : "As a general thing, they are an ignorant, illiterate set of men, and they seemed determined to keep everybody else the same."

There are many monuments that are dedicated to Confederate heroes, including one of the original leaders of the KKK, Nathan Bedford Forrest. But there are none to the victims of their crimes...until now. A wonderful book that finally gives voice to the victims and survivors of the Klan War. Amen to that.

Berlin, Budapest, Prague and beyond...

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:26:08 GMT

Well, with the holidays and the craziness afterward, I haven't blogged about life in Europe of late. After 2 months of snow...

And giant icicles...

The snow melted and we wandered out again... hmm, which one of these people believe in Christmas?

And which one of these is not like the other?

Here is the Berlin Wall of clothes...

And an obscene 6 story sculpture in the middle of the tourist section...

And an exhibit of Conan-like African masks...

And a Death Star-like stairwell...

An incredible labrynith of mirrors awaited us at the Berlin FilmHaus

along with the original Tin Drum from one of my all-time fav movies...

Um, can anyone explain this sign to me?

Around the holidays, we hit the road, first in Budapest,

where my best pal got married to his best girl pal.

Later, we dined on:

Hmm... oli-fried yeast dough....

Steven and his attack doggy Igor in the woods...

Leading the way through small villages...

to cool chateaus

And intriguing castles

Then we hit Prague...

Where I visited my homie F. Kafka...

And my caffeine-loving buddy Fingers

And my sly um...whatever he is, Winky.

Where graffitti bombers can buy from vending machines...

And guards stand still because a giant with a huge sword is threatening them

Then it was back to the Rhine Valley, where there was lots of snow and sledding...

And wild animal tracks

And roving snow sheep

And rams

and.. uh...run!

Back to sledding! Whew.

And now we are back to normal, awaiting Carnival and the Berlinale!

ARC in the house!

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 13:47:41 GMT

Finally.

I started Ghetto Cowboy way back in 2006 or so. Finished it about a year ago and since then, its been in the steady hands of Jesse Joshua Watson, who did the wonderful images.

And now it's finally here in my hands. So sweet.

I think I am more proud of this book than any other. Took awhile to find my way in but once I did, I wanted to stay.

New cover!

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:55:27 GMT

Though my newest book doesn't come out till September, here's an official peek at the cover, by my main man, Jesse Joshua Watson!

To check out more about the book, go here.

Coretta Scott King Award

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 07:07:42 GMT

Thanks so much for all the warm messages I received for yesterday's announcement about YUMMY getting a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award! Being an author, especially living in another country, its hard to know that your book is really out there. Hearing the applause in yesterday's webcast was definitely a Sally Field moment. Thanks for all your support, librarians! Because of you, we are going into our 3rd printing just after we ordered our second only a month ago!

And for those that missed the webcast, they've posted the whole thing here!

Review: Me and the Crazy World

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:32:50 GMT

When friends of ours in Berlin heard about my graphic novel, they told me how their 9 year old had written one last year when they were in America. I thought that was impressive but, you know,many kids do little comics, like I did when I was growing up.

But the next time we went over, their son Urs presented us with a bound copy of his 178 page graphic novel, and I was really impressed.

Entitled "Ich und die Verrueckte Welt" (roughly "Me and the Crazy World"), its a pre-adolescent riff on "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". What got my attention though, was the self-reflexive humor as presented through the main character. Yes, it's fiction, but I could definitely see some parallels in young Urs' life. A bold move from a potential author.

My daughter thought it was hilarious. We read a lot of books together but I don't think I've ever seen her laugh so much. I'm talking every page. This wasn't an adult author pretending to write like a 9 year old, it was the real deal and it showed. Even I laughed and that's hard to do.

On top of that, he illustrated the book himself too! Nice.

I'm not saying Jeff Kinney should run for cover. But we were thoroughly entertained and what more could you ask of someone that age. The commitment to creating a whole book is no easy task. I know plenty of adults who've tried for years and failed. So Urs gets an "A" in my gradebook. And we'd like to see another, please.

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 22:17:38 GMT

After having read through a trove of great non-fiction recently (Just Kids, K. Richards' A Life, American Lightning, Spies of Mississippi and They called themselves the KKK), I was finally in the mood for some fiction. And like most treasures, they are found, not looked for.

I was surprised that I had never heard of this novel before I stumbled upon it in a bookstore in Berlin. But I was immediately intrigued by the illustrated sidenotes that decorated this eccentric novel. And the fact that my patron god of undiscovered treasures, Stephen King, raved about it (regardless of what you think of him as a writer, the Kingster is never wrong about recommending great books).

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is the novel Wes Anderson might have written if he weren't so busy making great quirky, deeply felt movies. But this one is written by a first timer Reif Larsen. Comparisons to Anderson and Huck Finn are not far off. Filled with enough brilliance for any novel, it also has deep flaws that keep it from achieving true greatness. At times it was a bit too precious, at other times I was delighted and thoroughly entertained. There are some definite structural cheats going on here, but the stunning originality of the piece overcomes all these flaws.

Take the trip with Larsen and you will feel like you have journeyed across the US--full of wonders, ponderousness, awe, poignancy and resonance. A minor miracle with sights on greatness. Recommended.

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:44:04 GMT

Peace and goodwill to all!

Berlin Diaries: The Ice Man Cometh (or Winter is here)

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 11:06:20 GMT

Winter in Berlin is...

Standing on frozen ponds....

Sledding near our house...

No more bike rides for a while...

Frozen sightseers....

Drinking warm goodness on snowy days outdoor by the fire...

Electric Santas...

Pimp-daddy Santas...

Frozen naked statues...

and Wintermarkts!

Winter in Berlin is cold! (but nice).

My interview on NPR

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:29:16 GMT

Here’s the interview I did for NPR/ American Public Media's THE STORY, which aired today.

I have to say they did a great job, incorporating news clips and a teen reader reading selections aloud. Makes it feel real....

YUMMY, REMEMBERED
(click here to listen)

The murder rate in Chicago has been steadily climbing this year. The author Greg Neri has been watching the news closely. Greg’s latest novel, “Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty," is an attempt to make sense of the death of an eleven year old boy who killed someone, and was killed himself, in Chicago.

Traveling into the past of East Berlin

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:04:10 GMT

Like residents of Paris who've never been up the Eiffel Tower or New Yorkers who never went to the top of the Empire State Building, the Alex, East Berlin's symbol of supposed dominance in the 70s, is the place that can be seen from all over Berlin that many Berliners have never been to.

But that didn't stop us. I talked my wife and kid into doing it once while we were here and it was worth it! Normally a two hour wait to get into the tiny elevator, because we were nice (unlike many tourists there), the woman let us go up right away. It pays to smile!

They had a cool rotating restaurant on top where we saw the sunset, a rainstorm and a clear night sky break out all in an hour.

Looking to the West.

Looking south to the River Spree.

Then when it cleared, we headed over to one of the most delightful new museums in Berlin...the DDR Museum.

Where you can learn about the East's obsession with nudism

Working (or joining the East Germany female weight lifting team)

or what its like to be a powerful Communist bureaucrat.

Or being interrogated and imprisoned by the Stasi.

But to visit the real thing, you don't need to travel far. We recently wandered east and ended up around 1983. We ended up in a family recreational park called Wuhlheide park that looked like it was state of the art...40 years ago.

It looked like the old Olympic training grounds for the East German team, only overgrown and neglected. Socialist statues portraying the spirit of the workers hidden in the weeds. Miniature trains that were run by teens dressed as conductors looking like old Communist workers,gray and listless. A memorial for abused children featuring a child's bed inside a cage, next to a pit that looked like a grave. All surrounded by blocks of abandoned factories, no longer of any use in a Capitalist society. People looked older than they were, of ill health, with lots of handicapped folks and people with one arm or leg missing. And not a single person of color to be seen. Trippy.

To cap it off, my wife just read an anthropological look at the DDR cowboys--a society of easterners who dress up and live like cowboys and Indians from the American west (the Indians representing the mistreated masses of the American proletariat) all inspired by the classic German western Winnetou.

The Wall may have fallen but the East is still the East...for now.

Why Bank of America Sucks!

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:00:08 GMT

By all rights, we are the perfect refinance loan applicant. We have never missed or been late on our current fixed home loan. We have steady and rising income (my wife just got tenure), great credit scores (no other debt), and a refinance would actually give us a lower monthly than when we started (where we were making half as much).

Yet, somehow, B of A managed to screw us over. We rushed to file a refie before we left for Berlin. Did all the paperwork accordingly, were extremely thorough to make sure everything was done 100% correctly far in advance specifically so there would be no issues once we left. Yet when it came down to it, when B of A lost $10 billion this quarter, they found a way to cancel the loan through incompetence.

My mail is forwarded, my Florida phone hooked up over here, email constant. They claimed they contacted me through all 3 and when I didn't reply, they canceled the loan. Of course there is no proof of any such transaction.
When I called them on it, they couldn't even deny it or explain it. They just apologized and said they would be angry too in my shoes.

Now of course, we can't go elsewhere because of our sabbatical situation. We'd have to wait a year before things normalize again and who knows where rates will be again. These clowns outright lied and couldn't even be man enough to cover it up or justify their actions.

Speaking of mediocre incompetence, has it really become the standard for customer service to completely suck? It took me 2 weeks to cancel my contract with Verizon after years of horrible service. I had to go through the cancellation 3 times because they could never get it right and still 5 months later, I get monthly bills because they owe me money and can't manage to refund it.

Even Club Penguin, the kids website has ripped us off, changing their monthly membership to auto resubscribe. We tried it once 16 months ago and then just found out they'd been billing us ever since. Extremely shifty billing practice that preys on folks not to notice the fine print.

I have 10 more examples in my life that I won't bore you with. So what's it all mean? Mediocrity is the new competence? Its okay to lie to your customers? We can't even manage the most basic of services anymore?

I fear for my daughter's future. Mike Judge's Idiocracy got it wrong. It won't take 500 years for idiots to rule the world. They're already here.