Thursday, March 29, 2007
Bears come and bears go
The eternal circle of life in animal kingdom at the Berlin Zoo:
icebear Knut, everbody's favorite animal at the moment, was born and another favorite of the Berliners panda bear Yan Yan suddenly died shortly after. Yan Yan (22 yrs old) was here for 11 years –meant to be the mate of male panda Bao Bao, but actually they had no interest in each other and lived quite separately all the time. now Bao Bao is the only panda bear left in Germany!
Folks here and even around the world are Knut-crazy (me too, he is soooo cute and cuddly!!), and visitors line up for hours just to get a glimpse of him. If you can't come you can see the pics and videos at the Knut blog. But as Knut dominates the national news and magazines and TV shows let's take the time to say bye-bye to Yan Yan. Brought all the way to Berlin with the sole purpose to make Panda babies - or at least one! - she obviously just didn't give a damn but led her lazy Zoo life as an independent Panda lady, more interested in snoozing, eating and watching the strange humans than in the joys of motherhood. Here's a picture I took of her last Spring
Seeing that, I'm sure she will rest in Peace!
icebear Knut, everbody's favorite animal at the moment, was born and another favorite of the Berliners panda bear Yan Yan suddenly died shortly after. Yan Yan (22 yrs old) was here for 11 years –meant to be the mate of male panda Bao Bao, but actually they had no interest in each other and lived quite separately all the time. now Bao Bao is the only panda bear left in Germany!
Folks here and even around the world are Knut-crazy (me too, he is soooo cute and cuddly!!), and visitors line up for hours just to get a glimpse of him. If you can't come you can see the pics and videos at the Knut blog. But as Knut dominates the national news and magazines and TV shows let's take the time to say bye-bye to Yan Yan. Brought all the way to Berlin with the sole purpose to make Panda babies - or at least one! - she obviously just didn't give a damn but led her lazy Zoo life as an independent Panda lady, more interested in snoozing, eating and watching the strange humans than in the joys of motherhood. Here's a picture I took of her last Spring
Seeing that, I'm sure she will rest in Peace!Labels: animals, berlin, photos
Sunday, March 25, 2007
German weather gone funny
We've had sleet and snow to start off Spring here in Berlin...but now finally the sun came out and as usual the Berliners populated all the street cafés and changed from bad mood mode to happy cosmopolitan mode. Just found one of my favorite blooper videos. Popular German weather lady Maxi Biber (pronounced beeber, means beaver!) had a giggle attack while on air... you don't have to understand what she says, except for between laughing and temperatures and sunny spells she manages to say "I'm sorry" about 5 times...
Labels: berlin, funny, TV, Video
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Drag-Trash de Luxe
Berlin subculture at its best: I recently had a great crazy evening at one of the cities most cool clubs White Trash - my friends from the SqueezeBOX band had invited me to a concert. PMS, the late hour (after midnight) and the freezing temperatures outside almost made me stay at home, but my GF managed to drag me outside, stating that I was about to become a lazy old couch potato, and I'm glad she did! The first act were the Teaserettes - Germany's first burlesque go-go dancers. Their show is incredible, a wonderful blend of dance, art, comedy and sex - and they had the crowd excited and cheering within minutes. The crowd being a colorful mix of gays, dykes, girlies, business men in suits, stylish women with expensive handbags, students who still go grunge style and some scene VIPs - anything goes at the White Trash.
So now finally: the SqueezeBOX band (Berlin edition!).
I guess they are one of the most unusual bands around. Jutta, Mr Wonke and Andrea are the cool dykes on guitar, drums and bass. Then a slim new-wavy kind of guy on the other guitar (sorry, I forgot your name, but you're extremely cool nonetheless!). And finally the leading ladies Gloria Viagra & Sherry Vine (who flew in from New York). Imagine two drag queens (with the most amazing long legs!) rocking the house with their wild repertoire from Pink to ACDC ... they are charming and rude at the same time, need a drink after every song and are sometimes so out of tune, but that really doesn't matter - it's all party party party and even gets the expensive handbags and business suits jumping up and down and screaming the lyrics.
Oh and check out Gloria's website - she has the cutest flash intro I've ever seen.
So now finally: the SqueezeBOX band (Berlin edition!).
I guess they are one of the most unusual bands around. Jutta, Mr Wonke and Andrea are the cool dykes on guitar, drums and bass. Then a slim new-wavy kind of guy on the other guitar (sorry, I forgot your name, but you're extremely cool nonetheless!). And finally the leading ladies Gloria Viagra & Sherry Vine (who flew in from New York). Imagine two drag queens (with the most amazing long legs!) rocking the house with their wild repertoire from Pink to ACDC ... they are charming and rude at the same time, need a drink after every song and are sometimes so out of tune, but that really doesn't matter - it's all party party party and even gets the expensive handbags and business suits jumping up and down and screaming the lyrics.Oh and check out Gloria's website - she has the cutest flash intro I've ever seen.
Labels: berlin, club, concert, music
