Ok, Finland probably has the weirdest competitions with wife carrying, pea eating and mobile pone throwing but this month Germany had some fun to offer too: Berlin hosted the German Air Guitar Championships - always a great event! Just today - despite horrid weather - splash divers competed in Hamburg in the Cannonball World Championships (kind of a masochistic event for those who dig sore butts), and again in Berlin folks with nothing else to do also gathered in Berlin for the Rubber Boot Throwing World Championships. Which brings me back to Finland coz a 70 year old Finnish guy won in the Mens Seniors category and a Finnish woman in the Ladies Seniors. Probably beats sitting in an old peoples home watching TV all day...
Maybe the gay community should think up some new exciting competitions... Gay Games and Eurogames are fine, but how about some fun championships like Dildo Throwing World Cup, Gaydar Contest, Outing Marathon etc etc?! Start practicing boys and babez, I'm sure it's soon to come...

Labels: around the world, berlin, funny, gay culture, lesbian, Sports

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

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

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