The streets in Berlin were almost empty as the German team played against Argentina in the WC quarter finals today. It seems like now everyone is hooked on the championship by now. When Germany won after a very exciting match with overtime and penalty shoot outs the streets came alive again, fireworks went off and convoys of fans in cars honking their horns and wavin flags were suddenly everywhere. I have always have found it kind of weird that people love to run out of their homes and jump into their cars to celebrate a victory! But there are other ways to do it: below -
- German chancellor Angela -Angie - Merkel: the distinguished way of really hitting it off but not allowed to show too much down to earth enthusiasm. At least the match triggers a kind of smile in her usually hound-dog-serious face.
- The team: in lack of cars and honking horns they run around the field like lost rabbits, hugging each other and waving their shirts - after over 2 hours of chasing the ball it's amazing they can still walk anyway.
- Soccer moms and friends at my place: cheering and having a ball (what a pun!). The ultimate proof that football somehow makes you unashamed and lets you forget that you are usually a cool stylish person: nothing else can explain why intelligent women would sit around wearing silly cardboard crowns in the colors of the german flag!!! And now I'm putting this embarrassing moment online- my friends will just love me for it!



Football's truely coming home...sigh!

Labels: berlin, Sports

Not long ago someone tried to spread the rumour that Condy is gay. Now Ms. Condoleezza-I-almost-was-a-lesbian-Rice is accused of having an affair with da Boss Bush.... paleeeze! That woman is many things but not stupid and would never choose such a dumbwitt to be her toy-boy!
I've read some comments in various blogs stating that the notion of Condy and Dubya hitting the sack is just too scary. Above all it's totally bizarre and the more you think about it the more obnoxious phantasies it spins off. That's why I won't go there and just leave it to your imagination as to what kinky role-playing sex and war games these two would come up with....
For me, Condy alone is scary enough. That woman gives me the creeps and if you look closely you will see that she is one hell of a mad lady with an evil look. Maybe she started out with a lot of ideals and definitely a lot of chuzpe, but she turned into a mean angry power-obsessed bitch along the way. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean. Her official White House photos are of course all friendly - your smiling Secretary of State, a trustworthy WOC bound to save the world - but many snapshots have caught her off guard, showing her true colors - and that's really scary!

Labels: Celebrities, politics

Berlin is full of art, everywhere, anytime. While 1000s were watching football on the big screens only 5 minutes away, this wonderful public photography exhibition in front of the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn station was deserted and very peaceful in a kind of urban way....

Labels: berlin

Today we strolled across the World Cup Fan Mile in Berlin which was big fun. Seeing 1000s of people from different countries peacefully watching football on big screens while enjoying the sun and some beers was a really nice sight. Yellow and green colors dominated the scene as Brazilian and Australian fans had flocked to see their match.


Fans at the Brandenburger Gate

For some reason this World Cup has turned people into football enthusiasts who probably never even cared before. Maybe it's the sun and fun atmosphere and the gathering of (abnormally) happy people from around the globe - or maybe just the aspiration for a united world without aggression in these wild times. Or maybe some really clever marketing people here have prepared this so well with all the TV ads and songs and general hype that we've all been manipulated into suddenly getting excited about all these guys running after the ball. When I saw these two women today (in the photo below) I knew this World-Cup-Mania had reached even the most unlikely group of people: when elderly ladies who probably usually play Bridge on Sundays, join the cheering crowds and have painted the German flag on their forehead, you know things aren't the same anymore.


Notice the artfully painted wave flag - these ladies are fans with style

Labels: berlin, Sports

The Dykes in the City blog had a great idea today: "Hey, let’s all post the songs the iTunes Signature Maker selected from our iTunes collection!"
Which sounded like fun and it is! The list that was created for me was quite a surprise, as I really didn't know that I listen to so much old stuff or sad slow songs... It's a weird mix, but still: good songs. The tool comprised my list from the tunes I've played the most in the last 3 years so it must be true. Try it out and if you do, tell me about it, so I can check out your weird or superb music taste!

My list:
Free Your Mind, En Vogue
A Sorta Fairytale, Tori Amos
Pearl's a Singer, Elkie Brooks
I'm so Excited, The Pointer Sisters,
Sing It Back, Molokko
Symphonie, Silbermond
The Time is Now, Molokko,
This is your Life, Banderas
Leaving on a Jet Plane, Chantal Kreviazuk
Hanging by a Thread, Jann Arden
Maybe, Emma Bunton,
Love will Keep us Together, Captain and Tenille
Emotion, Destiny's Child
Look of Love, Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66
This is the Life, Wendy and Lisa
Fly me to the Moon, Julie London
You and Me, Rosie Thomas
You don't know me, Jann Arden
Paroles, Paroles, Dalida
Willst Du mit mir gehen, Nena

Labels: music, web stuff

What to do when you can't sleep or are just simply bored? Well I was just both and way too grumpy to read so I went to blogthing.com
I'm still not tired but I found out that according to blogthing.com my inner European is Irish (which half of me is, so that's fine), I belong in Paris (which can't be true, I love Berlin), my elf name is supposed to be Ditzy Eggnog Breath (which is a bit insulting but it gets worse coz:), my porn star name is Nasty Thong, and in a past life I was a jester in Ireland who died of a natural cause.

Now I'll go and visit some sites that are bound to get me to sleep:
here at talkingonline you can talk to yourself online - just make sure you only chat about boring things! (a pathetic but effective solution)
At snapbubbles.com you can pop virtual wrap bubbles until you fall asleep.
And finally you can dig holes through the earth all night long: "If you were to dig a hole from where you are standing all the way through the center of the Earth, where would you end up?"

Labels: web stuff, weird web

I remember my amazement and delight when I was in New York 2 years ago and saw the giant L-Word billboards towering above Manhattan. Some 2 years later the series has finally come to German TV (way too late: of course almost every dyke has seen it on DVD in the meantime).
The funny thing is: the first billboard you see when landing in Berlin at Tegel Airport is the TV-ad for the L-Word. And due to the World Cup we have a lot of visitors landing every day!! As you can see in my photos below German TV picked the almost naked version of the cast picture while in New York they still had clothes on - but it was winter in NY and it's summer now in Berlin, so that explains it ... or it could be our more liberal approach to nakedness- who knows... naked AND lesbian might have been too much at the time - even in Manhattan.


The L Word billboard at Berlin's Airport


The L Word billboard in Manhattan

Labels: berlin, lesbian

As we're all in Football World Cup mania here in Berlin, I'd like to share my favorite WC video - which is disgusting but still funny in a yucky kind of way... and it shows what some women have to endure during football events like these.
Watch the video at my sister site

Labels: Sports, Video

Ian Roberts is a famous gay Australian rugby player - and I picked his name for the headline because he's the closest you will get to a gay soccer player. Here in Berlin it's all about the World Championship these days which starts tomorrow. Homosexuality in soccer (or football as we call it here) seems to be the last taboo in sports - they exist but they don't come out! Some years ago English soccer player Justin Fashanu came out but experienced hell and committed suicide eight years later. Apparantly the British Sports Minister tried to convince other soccer players to come out and set an example and help fight homophobia in soccer - but no luck there!
Yesterday a gay organization revealed a billboard that will be all around Berlin during the championship showing two male soccer players kissing (sorry don't have a picture yet) - and the Berlin Mayor - who was present and is openly gay - wondered why on earth there are no gay professional soccer players. Well they sure exist and if a rugby player can come out - it is after all the most brutal macho sport! - then I think a soccer player should be able to do the same. If they can endure the pain of getting their shin bones kicked every week, not to mention a hard ball kicked right into your crown jewels, you should think they would be brave enough to be out...
It's similar when it comes to the German women's soccer team. Their most popular player is Birgit Prinz, who looks so much like a dyke but says she is hetero. I heard her say in an interview a while ago that there are a quite a few lesbians in the German team (oh really? why am I not surprised) but that they are afraid to come out. And Germany's player Steffi Jones stated that the lesbian players will never come out because they are afraid to lose their sponsors and also fear that they won't get a trainer license later on after their player career.One of Germany's best players ever Martina Voss got kicked out of the national team right before the Olympics in Sydney. At the time the real reason was kept secret but it soon got out: she had had to skip a local match because she had problems in her relationship with her girlfriend, also a soccer player. When the higher ranks of the conservative German soccer federation found this out she had to leave. Imagine they would do that to a popular straight soccer player. If Beckham were to have a bad day because he had a fight with bitchy Victoria the guys would pat him on the back, probably tell him to either dump her or get his act together and then on with the show!
The Voss incident is a few years back and she is now out and even works as a trainer. And maybe today if the kicking gals were to come out, it wouldn't be such a big thing - now that Europe has seen the L-Word and gay marriage is a-ok. Might be worth a try girls! And anyway, most people think female soccer players are dykes anway, so what the heck.
You can test your gaydar with the photo of the German soccer team below - but it might take many years to find out if you were right.

Labels: Celebrities, Sports

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So Dubya did it again - he opposes gay marriage, what else is new? I actually just read the proposed amendment text for the first time which is:
"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the Constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."
Ok, so what's so damn great and exclusive about heterosexual marriage? I can tell you after doing a bit of research:
It's not working:
The total numbers of U.S. divorces (excluding the non-counting states) reported finalized annually are 957,200 in 2000.
(The total numbers of U.S. marriages (including those states) reported celebrated annually are 2,355,005 in 2000.)
It can be a dangerous union:
Two million spouses (mostly women) are threatened with a deadly weapon annually, according to the US Department of Justice. One half of all American homes are affected by domestic violence at least once a year.
This holy union does not always result in a loving family:
The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reported an estimated 1,400 child fatalities in 2002. In 2002, more than one-third (38 percent) of child maltreatment fatalities were associated with neglect alone. Physical abuse alone was cited in more than one-quarter (30 percent) of reported fatalities. Another 29 percent of fatalities were the result of multiple maltreatment types.

So, this is something that should be protected from us ? Clean up your own mess biggots and put a little love in your life instead of hatred and ignorance!

It's one of these days I'm glad I live in Europe - and could marry my girlfriend if I chose to (well and if she said yes!). After all those horrid figures here's some nice lesbian romance for you - in an Australian Johnny Walker ad from 1997. You can see it at The Commercial Closet



gay marriage

Labels: gay, lesbian, politics

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This is usually the time of the year when we sit in outside cafès and bars in Berlin and enjoy the colorful life in our wild city... but it's just been raining forever and it's so cold I had to turn on my heater.
I've found a photo at flickr that describes the sad sight better than words could ever do:



The photo is by Reinhard Clasen ... click on his name to see more of his great Berlin photos.

Labels: berlin

Somehow I missed this news a few weeks ago: Germany's Fashion Queen Jil Sander

had a female stalker who threatened her and her girlfriend Dickie (what a name for your lesbian lover ay?!?!) and even threatened to murder the couple.
She had never met Jil but still fell in love as she says... More falling than loving I would say.

The stalker-dyke will probably get let off with 6 months probation. and I'm wondering does a sentence like that stop someone who is that disturbed?
I used to believe that stalking was a hetero-thing but then Sharon Gless had a lesbian stalker and even Pamela Anderson - which must be the climax of lesbian stalking disturbance.

Even lesbians I know have had some bad experiences with stalkers and it seems to be a frightening and increasing trend.
Or was this always there and it was just a taboo you didn't talk about? In any case these are the times I'm happy not to be a hollywood celebrity (well there's more reasons for that!) or at least don't seem to have that certain something that makes someone become abnormally obsessed with me...

Labels: lesbian