Beautiful Berlin (part 1)
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
Part 1 of a probably regular series of just lovely things I've seen and taken a picture of in Berlin, from skylines to street art to interesting things found in bar toilets. And everything in between. Enjoy.
The hilarious German language
Saturday, 9 January 2016
It's clear that me and German grammar aren't getting along terribly well. But German vocabulary, on the other hand, is outstanding.
Just Like Starting Over: Berlin update, December 2015
Friday, 11 December 2015
So, you know, getting there
.
Doomed to repeat
Er ist Wieder Da' (Look Who's Back) - film review
Saturday, 14 November 2015
Marketed very much as a comedy, the film uses Adolf Hitler, the monster from Germany's past, as a comedy tool with which to explore the German (and European) people's darkening attitudes to multiculturalism and immigration, pitching parallels with pre-fascist 1930s Germany with razor sharp clarity.
You can't always get what you want
Thursday, 29 October 2015
So, in the end, here's the upshot: I work with lovely people in a decent enough job – where, importantly, not speaking German isn't much of an issue - that lets me listen to 6 hours of new albums or podcasts every shift, working part-time that gives me over half of each day to myself to write and play, pays for my health insurance, while allowing me to fairly comfortably live and booze in Berlin with consummate elegance and depravity. Which, ultimately, was why I moved here in the first place.
Turns out Jagger was right: you can't always get what you want, but, right now, I find I've got what I need
They won't get me, I'm part of the Union
Tuesday, 27 October 2015
Football, in its distilled, pure essence, away from TV rights squabbles, glittering baubles and devaluing corporate deals, is still about a community, a history, a tradition, a story, love. It's about that beating heart, and how strongly it pumps blood through its veins.
Union's heart beats loud, and the blood flows strong.
Thursday, 22 October 2015
'The EU is so important,' he said to me. 'If only to stop us invading France...'
I had absolutely no idea when I arrived, but am fast learning, that Germany is still a country where guilt over World War II and the Holocaust still has substantial influence.
Ich bin ein Berliner II
Monday, 19 October 2015
Backpfeifengesicht (Back/pfeifen/gisicht) (n) a face that cries out for a fist in it, or ' a person with a face in need of a fist'.
This one compound noun describes an emotion you might feel when looking at a picture of, say, Jeremy Clarkeson, or people who play loud tinny music from their phones on the bus, or, you know, Tories.
We should totally import Backpfeifengesicht into the English language immediately!
Ich bin ein Berliner
14 October, 2015
Dear England
I ought to let you know that I am slipping away from this scene of nightmare.
I've been gone for six weeks or so now. I don't imagine you noticed, much less cared; likely, my leaving was a tiny blip on your radar, unseen, slipping by your seething, broiling obsession with those coming the other way. What's one more exile to you? I'm somebody else's immigrant now.
I'm leaving you, England. I think it's best to get that in first, then we can go from there. I'm leaving you for Berlin. But this isn't about Berlin, or Germany, or the EU.
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