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America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Music

Ich bin vinyl Berliner

20th April 202420th April 2024 funtime65

And to mark Record Store Day ich bin vinyl Berliner.

And I warn you you’ll be seeing a lot more of these lame Teuton rib-ticklers in the next few days’ odyssey of east Germany.

There will be much to fit in during my whistlestop transit through Berlin en route to Chemnitz, next year’s European Capital of Culture.

Wax lyrical

But one stop-off we’ve been recommended is the Hard Wax Berlin record store at 44A Paul-Lincke-Ufer.

No David Hasselhoff here… Hard Wax Berlin is known as a dance destination.

Situated in an old factory building behind the canal in Kreuzberg it keeps the theme going with a metal counter.

Where DJ Hell, Modeselektor and Marcel Dettmann have all polished their acts over the years.

Of course music and musicians played a key role over the Fall of the Berlin Wall despite The Hoff’s interruption.

And we’ll also delve into the part heavy metal played and the Leipzig protests 35 years ago… stay tuned.

Jammin’ in Jamaica

But getting back to those beats.

And today’s celebration of record stores allows us to take a spin around other cool vinyl shops across the world.

Now if you’ve been watching One Love, the Bob Marley biopic, and if not why not?

Then you’ll be familiar with the Jamaican record store scene.

And particularly Orange Street, Kingston, where everyone from Sir Coxswane Dodd to Bob flicked through the records.

Known to locals as Beat Street, Prince Buster was even born here.

Rockers International and Randy’s keep the tradition alive.

The vinyl Trade

Now we all know the rich crossover between reggae and punk.

And indy label royalty Rough Trade started life in Notting Hill, London as a reggae record store.

If timing is what music is all about, and it is, then Geoff Travis had it in spades when he bought his shop in 1978.

And he was open to the fusion of reggae and punk… today Rough Trade spans the whole range of indy music.

Bigger in LA

Of course when it comes to size the US of Eh tries to do everything bigger and better.

And few could argue with the credentials of Amoeba Records in Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Where I’ll take time to frequent when I’m in La La Land next month.

The hangar-sized emporium occupies an entire city block and is across two huge floors.

We’ve been pointed to the Jazz room, the Out of Print section, the Punk aisle by the excellent guide The Vinyl Factory.

But whatever your thang is you’ll find it there.

LA though is for next month… Germany is my appetiser this week.

Where I’ll be happy to say Ich bin vinyl Berliner.

Europe, Sport

From Olympia to Paris as we let the flames begin

16th April 202416th April 2024 funtime65

Now it’s been flickering since the first Classical Olympics so for the day that’s in we’re going on an odyssey from Olympia to Paris as we let the flames begin.

All to mark 1,000 days until the start of the XXXIII Games gets underway in the City of Light.

The flame burned brightly all through the original games in old Hellas in reference to Prometheus stealing fire from the gods.

Now you might think that the Athenians would have revived the flame.

When the Games were revived in 1896 but maybe the gods had been appeased.

Burning ambitions

Olympic adventure: Olympic Airlines in Greece

It took the Dutch to bring the flame back for the Games in Amsterdam in 1928 for a more prosaic reason… to show people where the Olympics were being held.

The grandiloquent Germans of the Thirties took it up a step though not for the best of motives for the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

There was no precedent for the torch relay but then The Third Reich were reinventing everything they came across then.

was introduced by Carl Diem at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

And seeing they were burning their way across Europe at the time they thought nothing of beating a path.

From Olympia to Berlin over 1,980 miles with 3,331 runners in twelve days and eleven nights.

Where minor protests in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were put down by the local security forces.

The Greatest

King of the ring: Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali

The torch relay became a fixture for the next 72 years becoming ever more unwieldy.

Before being discontinued after all manner of disruptions and protests on its way to Beijing in 2008.

Nowadays the torch relay only takes place in Greece and the host country.

And that’s what we saw yesterday in Hellas with the Vestal Virgins stealing the show as they always do.

Now while that’s a staple in the Home of the Games each host country has it in its gift.

To choose the figure who will light the torch when it reaches its venues.

And there was to be no more emotional moment than in 1996.

When a warrior who wouldn’t have looked out of place in Ancient Greece.

Former Olympic champ Muhammad Ali lit the flame, hands shaking because of his Parkinson’s.

So there you are and we hope you’re not too whacked after our odyssey from Olympia to Paris as we let the flames begin.

Countries, Europe, Sport

From Paris to Berlin my heart is pumping for sport

26th March 202426th March 2024 funtime65

With apologies to ravers Infernal but from Paris to Berlin my heart is pumping for sport this year.

Sports fanatics are on the move this year for the Euros and the Olympics.

With two of the world’s great cities showcased and putting on colossal parties.

Line up the Schotts

Berlin is first up with a host of matches and most importantly the final, featuring Schottland, on July 14 at the Olympiastadion.

This Schott will be going out on a recce next month ahead of the finals.

And, of course, what you’ll be wanting to know is where the party is going to be.

Now as more of a Dancing Dad I’ll leave Infernal, who claim to know every disco there and Paris, to give you the nightclubs.

And while yes sir I can boogie like every Scotland footie fan I’m more about the bars.

Whether it’s the Hofbrau or Lowenbrau halls at the Munich Oktoberfest or 11 Freunde die Bar in Essen I’ve drunk in German football fun.

Now our freundes in Berlin tell us that Belushi’s Berlin (Mitte) on Ziegelstrasse is where Jocks gather to watch Scottish football.

If you’ve been too pessimistic to have already bought your ticket for the final.

Book a table

Win or loos: 11 Freunde Die Bar in Essen

Now a staple of the German sports bar is the Kicker-Tisch (table football).

And it’s as lively as the action on the screens down at FC Magnet just between Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte in the karaoke downstairs.

While it’s big balls and little balls, of the ping-pong variety at Schmittz, Gormanstrasse.

Where as an adjunct to the football they play Umlauf, a 20+ elimination game well suited for the main knockout football.

Now, should you prefer multi-games to just the Beautiful Game.

Then they’ll be striving Faster, Stronger, Higher – Together around Paris.

Here for the bier

Us Jocks gather when we’re in Paris to watch any Scot from Chariots of Fire Eric Liddell through David Wilkie and Allan Wells to Andy Murray.

At the Auld Alliance, Scotland’s oldest pub in the city on Rue Francois Miron.

Now because we’re all amis at the Olympics then us of the Scottish variety are allowed in English pubs too.

And the best one around is the Bombardier Pub on Rue Gaston Rebuffat which boasts serving up Football, rugby and everything in between.

And both bottled and traditional draught beers, brought straight from its brewery in Bedford.

Of course, the best bars anywhere as we all know are the Irish ones.

And while they won’t have a team to support at the Euros (apart from anyone who plays England) they’ll have Irish athletes to cheer in Paris.

And an Irish party

Now, Le Little Temple Bar on La Rue de la Soif isn’t as big as the tourist trap in Dublin but it matches it for noise on match day.

So from Paris to Berlin my heart is pumping for sport this summer… see you there and mine’s a Guinness.

Countries, Europe

Meghan an Insta impact on Buck House

25th March 202425th March 2024 funtime65

And as if we could ever get away from her… a poll to remind us of how a young American back in the day was already Meghan an Insta impact on Buck House.

With the revelation (small beer in today’s world of big royal reveals) that London is the most Instagrammable city in the world.

Because there was a world BC (Before Catherine) in which Meghan was queen which she know doubt would want to be.

And any hagiography about her had to include a picture of her as a young tourist outside Buckingham Palace dreaming and plotting of nabbing a royal.

All of which peregrinations is my way in today to celebrating London as the Insta destination of kings, queens, Z-list American actresses and us little people.

London calling

Experts at NZCasinoClub analysed numerous city break-related hashtags for European capitals, including #[city], #[city]travel, and #[city]tourism.

With the number combined to create an overall total per city to discover the most Instagrammable European destinations.

London scores 163,530,000 Instagram hashtags with over 2,000 years of history and famous landmarks like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben to get your selfie in front of, although we prefer the Tower.

Paris lights

Of course the NZCasinoClub survey is something of a tale of two cities with Paris coming in just behind.

The City of Lights has 141,283,300 Instagram hashtags.

Et naturellement the Eiffel Tower is a must-have selfie while if you want to dodge the traffic you can try for a piccie round L’Arc de Triomphe.

Now, we’ll let the researchers do the heavy lifting here with their table underneath.

Others in the frame

Only to flag up that our favourites Amsterdam, Rome and Prague all figure.

And, of course, we’ve jumped up at the opportunity to be photographed in the Rembrandt Night Watch, on the Spanish Steps and on the King Charles V Bridge.

But we must of course mention that Ankara features in third, Berlin in fourth and Madrid in 5th.

A victory here for the capital of Turkey over Istanbul and that in itself marks it out as somewhere special.

Ankara, we are told boasts a vast selection of parks, mosques, museums, and performing arts venues dotted around the city and the annual International Ankara Music Festival.

While of all its charms, the researchers flag up Berlin’s visual masterpieces that are a beautiful background for a photo opportunity.

With Kripo’s Yellow Fist outside Friedrichshain station high on that list.

While in Madrid we’re encouraged to get our photies taken outside the Royal Palace and Almudena Cathedral.

All of which our favourite ‘non-working royal’ (most of us who are non-working, are er, unemployed) would have on her list of self-promotion.

Which all started out when she was Meghan an Insta impact on Buck House.

City sights

Bridge of highs: On the King Charles Bridge in Prague

And that list for you…

Rank

City

Number of Instagram Hashtags

1

London

163,530,000

2

Paris

141,283,300

3

Ankara

56,000,600

4

Berlin

53,776,700

5

Madrid

49,639,000

6

Amsterdam

36,359,100

7

Baku

34,930,200

8

Rome

30,237,600

9

Prague

18,871,400

10

Vienna

16,456,700

Sport

Marathon mania

2nd October 20221st November 2022 funtime65

Men and women in spacesuits and the front and back of horses, it’s Marathon mania on London Marathon Day.

So we’re going right back to the start to 490BC and Philippedes who famously ran 26 miles 385 yards to warn Athens the Persians were coming.

Because, of course they didn’t have social media back then.

Nor sat-nav, cars or even signposts which of course we all have now.

Marathon, signposts for which you can see in the Greek capital, obviously makes a big thing of Philippedes.

And his modern-day successor Spiridon Louis, the first Marathon gold-medallist of the 1896 Modern Olympics.

All at the Marathon Run Museum.

Phil steam ahead

Of course the most authentic experience of all is to run Philippedes’s route.

Which you can do in the Classic Athens Marathon Race which runs in 12-13 November.

Maybe best not reminding you here of Philippedes’ fate after he’d crossed the finishing line of the first Marathon.

Phil, by which we’d know him now, had just enough puff left in him to write out the word ‘Nenikikamen’ or ‘we won’.

Before he collapsed and died of a heart attack.

Better maybe try a less severe Marathon.

Run the world

Maybe warm up with a London, Boston (the world’s oldest annual Marathon dating vack to 1897), Berlin (the fastest course).

Or if you really want to get left field then make a bucket list holiday out of it in say, Tahiti.

Where you can join the 1,000 runners in the Moorea Marathon, The Islands of Tahiti.

And pound the pineapple plantations and along the pristine white beaches.

So maybe you want to avoid today’s London Marathon mania well just choose your location.

Because everybody wants to run the world.

Countries, Europe

Scotland’s Secret Bunker

24th September 202224th September 2022 funtime65

There are some secrets you want to share particularly as we might be needing them soon, so I was intrigued by the signpost to Scotland’s Secret Bunker.

The bunker, amusingly, is located near St Andrews, the Home of Golf but they’re more interested here in nukes than niblicks.

Scotland’s Secret Underground Nuclear Centre, to give it its Sunday name, wasn’t advertised, naturally, back in the day.

But thankfully with the end of the Cold War (no, really) it is a tourist site.

Down on the farm

The bunker stands a hundred feet down with the entrance hidden in an unsuspecting farmhouse.

RAF Troywood, which was built in 1953, covers 24,000sqft of Command Centre.

It incorporates the radar technology of that era, dormitory, plotting room and mess.

The visitor attraction is open from February 1 to November 30.

It’s £13.95 for adults, £9.95 for children and £12.95 for concessions with a 2.2 family rate coming in at £37.95.

The bunker was primed for 50 years before it was put in mothballs but has thankfully been spruced up for our amusement.

Czech out the Bunker

Going underground gives a perspective into another world and you don’t have to be a military historian to enjoy it.

Of course, it stands to reason that while we were hunkering down in preparation for them attacking us.

The Warsaw Pact were doing the same over on their side.

Which I saw first hand in Prague in Czechia. On my Prague Communism Tour.

Where I was taken behind the thickest steel door imaginable on the side of a mound.

And taken down into the bowels of the Earth to see how the Czechs prepared to hide away from our bombs.

Needless to say the food was tinned meat an the likes although the Czechs would have stocked up on Urquell Pilsner.

They probably underestimated too how many loos they would have needed for full-blooded Pragueites.

Hitler’s hideaway

Check out (sorry) too nuclear bunkers from Arizona to Asia for similar experiences.

While to experience what life must have been like in the most famous bunker of all head for Berlin.

Alas Hitler’s Reichstag in the German capital is no longer there but they have recreated it for you here… it’s the next best thing.

And, of course, we’ll be there just as soon as we can.

For now though we’re looking into Scotland’s Secret Bunker… just in case we need it soon.

America, Countries, Culture, Europe, UK

Five films to escape the Platinum Jubilee

31st May 20221st June 2022 funtime65

And because we’re not all pliant subjects here are five films to escape the Platinum Jubilee.

And other ideas will follow through the week.

Historical

Cabaret: And because it’s only the best film ever made.

Daddy’s Little Girl was my proxy in Berlin this past week where she partied at the KitKat Club, named for the Cabaret burlesque club.

From the opening credits of the MC and Sally Bowles singing Wilkommen you will be drawn into 1930s Nazi Berlin.

It is musical, historical, tragic and comic. In a word it is Magic.

Comical

The talk: Jim and his Dad in the Great Lakes

American Pie: And this is like having to choose your favourite child (btw, it’s the one who buys you the biggest gift).

Who can pass Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Some Like It Hot, Gregory’s Girl, Monty Python and The In Betweeners?

But on the grounds that there are three of these.

Then the classic coming of age trilogy on the Great Lakes will keep you occupied, smiling and gorging in American Pie. Whisper it but Los Angeles doubles for East Great Falls.

Mysterious

Kathy’s no clown: Fried Green Tomatoes in Georgia

Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe: And the title lives up to its billing in this Deep South Classic from Juliette, Georgia.

Juliette, 56 miles from Atlanta, is where the action takes place and you can still visit The Whistle Stop Cafe.

And no, they don’t put on a barbecue.

Feelgood

A Street Cat Named Bob: Now we’ve all binged on movies on transatlantic flights… and often fallen asleep during some.

And a tip here… if you’ve worked out that you can fit in three movies, always pick the one you least want to watch as the last in case you do nod off.

I’m glad to say that I picked A Street Cat Named Bob as my first movie on the way over to LA… and cried.

It is set around Covent Garden in London and deals with a drug addict homeless man who is saved by a stray cat. And it proves that cats really are better than humans.

Scary

It’ll make you cross: The Exorcist in DC

The Exorcist: And scarier still than the cutesie little girl who turns evil, spins her head and chucks priests down stairs with the power of her mind, is that its true.

The author William Peter Blatty agreed with the family to change the child’s sex from male to female to defend their anonymity.

There are tales too that the actress Linda Blair was psychologically damaged by playing the part.

You can visit the area where it was shot in Washington DC. Head for Georgetown.

So that’s five films to escape the Platinum Jubilee, and we’ll come up with another listicle to plan your altenative Platinum Jubilee weekend.

Countries, Europe

From Prussia With Love

18th November 202118th November 2021 funtime65

There are some things we never question, one of which is where the Brandenburg Gate leads to… which is why today we bring you the answer From Prussia With Love.

Granted there is is a touch of lazy shorthand about the tag ‘outer Berlin’.

And yes, I was part of the great Beetablockers Teeline scandal at the Centre for Journalism Studies in Cardiff in 1988)!

Because the iconic gate in the west of Berlin leads to another great Prussian town, Brandenburg an der Havel.

And Brandenburg housed the royal City Palace of that state’s monarchs.

To the north of the gate is the Reichstag parliament building and through it is Unter den Linden, a boulevard of linden trees.

It has long been my mission to say Ich Bin Ein Beriner and Der Scary One is on board.

And all the more so as Berlin and its environs is a gardener’s Nirvana.

German unification

When most of my teenage peers were spiking their hair and pogoing to Punk.

My Dear Old Dad was pummelling education into me.

And while I never did get the point of the hypoteneuse or the litmus test.

I did take to history and developed a lifetime passion.

For whatever reason one of the core periods on the curriculum was the Unification of Germany.

If you know your Medieval Germanic you’ll recognise that Brandenburg derives from braniti (to defend) and bor (forest).

And there’s history aplenty (and nature too) with Brandenburg the regional capital and hub from the early 10th century.

Until it ceded that to Potsdam in the mid-17th century at the end of the Thirty Years War.

Potsdam pomp

My old history books may be where I first met the Prussian Princes and Bismarck.

And it is where I will meet them again in the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam.

It’s a world all of its own, with more than 500 hectares of parks and 150 buildings constructed between 1730 and 1916.

The complex was designed by the top architects and landscape gardeners of the period.

And they worked with sculptors and painters to create masterpieces such as the Sanssouci Park, the New Garden and the Park of Babelsberg.

Our German friends

Now, of course, it’s impossible to boil down the scale and beauty of Potsdam.

Or its importance in modern history.

Frederick the Great’s gaff it also housed Kaiser Wilhelm II until his abdication at the end of the First World War in 1918.

While it also brought the Great and Good of the Allies together in 1945 for the Potsdam Conference.

And the Allies

That would be Stalin, Truman and Churchill and then Attlee.

And they had the small matter of the reconstruction of Europe.

And the destruction of Japan, though Harry S decided to keep his intentions to himself.

All of which I’ll immerse myself when we get out there next year.

While Der Green-Fingered One explores the parks of Sanssouci (carefree), Germany’s largest World Heritage site.

All of which we gladly bring you From Prussia With Love.

America, Asia, Countries, Europe

Olympics Flag Day

23rd July 202124th July 2021 funtime65

It’s a vexillologist’s dream, Olympics Flag Day… and there were 206 of them at the opening ceremony.

Of course the majority of them will never be seen again on the podium.

Now flags are really just the costume a country dresses itself up in.

So just like women and dresses it would never do if you turned up with your best flag.

And then you saw somebody there with the same drapery.

But that is exactly what happened at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

When Leichtenstein turned up for their first Games proudly displaying their blue/red split horizontal flag.

Only to see Games veterans Haiti flying theirs.

And so they did what every lady does… accessorise by adding a crown while Haiti added their coat of arms.

Of course the Olympics are the chance for every country and its athletes to meet people they’d never encountered before.

So just a couple of words here on some flags we’ll see a lot more of in the next couple of weeks.

Made in Japan

Japan: The Rising Sun flag is one of the most distinctive and easiest to draw… if you’re Giotto.

Japan is said to have been founded by the Sun goddess Amaterasu in the 7th Century BC.

And is an ancestor of first emperor Jimmu… and surely a relative.

Chinese stars

China: We all associate China with the Reds but, of course, Communism only dates back 70 odd years.

Not being political here but we prefer an earlier iteration, the Yellow Dragon Flag used by the Qing Dynasty.

Betsy’s bunting

USA: The world’s most famous seamstress, you can learn the whole story of the American flag in the City of Brotherly Love.

Of how Betsy Ross sewed the definitive Stars and Stripes in Philadelphia.

And persuaded George Washington to agree to five-pointed stars rather than six because that was easier to sew.

UK OK?

UK: So, you thought you know the story of the Union Jack, actually the Union Flag, the Jack is naval.

It encompasses the St George’s flag of England and its then vassal territory Wales, the Scottish St Andrew’s Cross and the St Patrick’s Saltire.

As was inevitably the way of it the English wanted to tuck the Scots flag up in the corner and the Jocks to have their ceoss dominate.

Until they came up with the drape we all know.

Uber alles

Germany: The German black, red and yellow horizontal bands derive from the 1848 Year of Revolutions.

And are inspired by the black uniforms with red facings and gold buttons of the Lutzow Free Corps who fought Napoleon.

Happy to share

Scotland and Tenerife: Vexillologists everywhere know that Scotland and Tenerife share the same flag.

But for those who need a reminder I unpicked the threads of it.

You’ll not see the Saltire fly at the Tokyo Games unless, of course, it’s draped around the shoulders of Jock winners.

That would be a twist on Olympics Flag Day.

But it should have been me, it should have been me.

Countries, Europe, UK

German English anthems for the footy

28th June 202127th June 2021 funtime65

Fur der Woche that’s in it Rainy days and Songdays celebrates German English anthems for the footy.

And no triumphalism here or throwbacks to the World Wars, just banging songs the British have taken to their hearts.

I’ll start off with a curve ball here with a prog rock concept act many outside Germany might not know.

To Be Or Not To Be

I’ll Call Thee Hamlet (Woods of Birnam): And you can’t get much more English than Shakespeare.

I caught these guys in Dresden where they were the headliners for the German Travel Mart.

And just for good measure Birnam lead singer Saxon Christian Friedel throws in a soliloquy.

Give a little whistle

Tear down that wall: Reagan said it about the Wall

The Scorpions (Winds of Change): The Hanover rockers’ biggest hit was adopted as the song of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Of course anyone who listens to the words beyond the opening whistling and before the chorus will know different.

And who says a song can’t have an unintended journey and follows the Moskva down to Gorky Park… and onto Berlin.

Did you ever think that we could be so close like brothers?

Model craft

Kraftwerk (Das Model): And the Dusseldorf kings of synth pop who did wonders for the image of the German fraulein.

And also cornered the market in Tour de France music.

Da Da, Ja, Ja

Trio (Da Da Da): And if learning a language was only this easy.

The rest from this Grossenkneten is German and our translator reveals it is staple pop fare boy loves/doesn’t love girl.

Ja, we know, Da, Da, Da.

Up, up and away…

Nena (Neunundneunzig Luftballons): And this Eurovision banger is one of those rare songs that is just as good in its native language and English.

And of course, there will be English red balloons to greet the home side tomorrow.

North Rhine-Westphalian Nena’s song is thd best of the German English anthems for the footy and no mistake.

And to misquote Nena although it will be her sentiment…

This is it, boys… this ain’t war.