Geoff Stahl
Brief one again, and flecked with only a dash of innuendo (much less than an earlier post, but then you needed the secret decoder ring to suss that one out and I’m not giving it up so easily). I’m back from Lancaster and Liverpool. Was good to see people and catch up. Talk went very well, probably the best version I’ve given, with plenty of time to talk and show visuals, flesh out ideas that haven’t been presented before. Ping Pong Country never looked so good (except when it’s actually played). Managed to eat well (my hosts, Marc and Christine, were very generous with hearty food, especially fond of the Indian meal we whipped up together and those M&S naan breads were amazing. Nothing like that in NZ at the shops) as well as get out to the country (thanks to Graham for the lift out to the moonscape that is Dent and its environs. And for arranging the crap weather, too. No, no, it was all good, really.*) Also got a dose of Liverpool and its expanding nightlife, but only for a night. It doesn’t look as grim as it did the first time I was there (sure, you’ve got plenty of places just abandoned and crumbling, especially out near John Lennon International Airport, but there were lights and sounds and people out on a Monday night and that counts for something. I mean they are the Capital of Culture in 2008, so they’ve got to get it together before then. I just ask that you keep the Beatles’ legacy at a level which is not so screechingly tasteless).
Also saw the latest Egoyan film, Where the Truth Lies, which was actually very good. Funny and Vertiginous, with Hermann-esque music to bring the point home, Kevin Bacon was great and Colin Firth was very good at capturing the smooth decay of a lecherous 50s entertainer on the way out.
Berlin has been bitterly cold the last few days and I’m pining a bit for southern climes now (pining, pining). It’s getting a wee bit lighter, but the days end too quickly. Of course, I picked the wrong time to come here as the weather is just bleak and the Russian winds bring out a crisp solemnity to this already solemn place. I hope in my talk on play and the city next week at Club Transmediale I can liven things up a bit. Details of the festival here. The paper is just gestating at the moment, but it’ll be good to go for next week. Fingers crossed. Lovely design on those posters, don’t you think? Looks to be a fun week, with lots on and some good inspiration for the next research project. Already thinking about it with some relish.
Tunes. A couple that you may or may not be familiar with. First off is the Katzenjammers and a great cover. I think this is just amazing, in part because it’s live and that and it came out in 1981, not long after the original.
The next one, is some East German rock, which has a great boogie beat to it and sounds pretty remarkable to my ears. It’s Communist bell-bottom rock. Great.
And finally, a nice Brazilian cover of an 80s classic, instrumental version with brass, which is just fantastic and revives a cut which has edged toward the played out for many, many years.
*(The expression “it’s all good,” in its past and present tense, is not my own. More about that later. Honest. I’m such a tease sometimes.)
Iso G.