the people

Mr. Balsamico's view from the Vaterland
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Sloth
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Post by Sloth »

yeah that would be fun...
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martino
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love is in the air

Post by martino »

there is such an atmosphere of pleasure and well-being everywhere, it's just great. i went to my croatian grocer a few minutes ago and talked shop and we exchanged jokes and some passerbyes joined in and it went hilarious. i live in town center and i hear the faint sound of tv's on with sports hacks talking wherever i go. people laughing here and there, of course it's the weather too but the suspense seems to be lifting everybody's spirits.

of course, some things are hard to get used to -- i saw about seven middle-aged guys in german-team shirts today and they were not a pretty sight. that don't matter. also, there is somewhat too much police and helicopters around but that's what you get when you have polish hools, english drunks and the odd rumored osamaman.

work be damned: i am going to a nice open-air party later this evening where the games will be shown on projector to an audience of sexy young things, i'll lift my beer glass and think of you folks and say "here's to feeling good all the time"
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Post by marky »

hahaha! This is great stuff Martino, post when you can!

the opening game (tomorrow) will see summerly temperatures.


Something in me wanted to read this as "the opening game will see summarily, temperatures" So I couldn't even remember what summarily meant. Then there was this:

summary
One entry found for summary.
Main Entry: 1sum·ma·ry
Pronunciation: 's&-m&-rE also 's&m-rE or -"mer-E
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin summarius, from Latin summa sum
1 : COMPREHENSIVE; especially : covering the main points succinctly
2 a : done without delay or formality : quickly executed <a summary dismissal> b : of, relating to, or using a summary proceeding <a summary trial>
synonym see CONCISE
- sum·mar·i·ly /(")s&-'mer-&-lE/ adverb
marky
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Post by marky »

Also, isn't there some kind of 70's song called Love Is In The Air or something? Damnit, help me out here. I'm not crazy, right? It was some male crooner guy, singing Love Is In The Air, sortof like disco but not really. In the 70's. Who did that song? ARRRRGH! I have to know! Am I Crazy? No no no it's Lou Rawls isn't it? He did something like that didn't he? (oh my god Marky's Trivial Pursuit of Music has gone too far) Oh god...what song am I thinking of???
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martino
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venues

Post by martino »

summarily speaking marky, it is john paul young's, and is a highlight of the 70s in my book. just like george mccrea: a sound once ridden, forever smitten.

getting back to the games: so much i could write, so little time! so i will economize and write at least one little thing a day, but not much more.

today about how great it is to live in a town where i can watch the games literally in a score of different places, each of which is fantastic.

ok you don't believe be, so let me tell you where i spent friday evening. first i hade five pals/pallettes over for some munchies/tapas on my balcony which has a commando view of the town (pic to be posted later). we watched the first half of the opening game on my splendid widescreen screen which i had recently gotten cheapo from a guy called murat who lives downstairs.

then, we got on our bikes (much of town is now closed for automotive traffic) and rode to cafe king, which is a semi-temporary, ex-heavy-industrial open-air location where they normally have indie concerts of the kind marky would like, but now have two bombasic widescreens built up behind a half-ton of sand (for that good ole' beach atmosphere). it is hard to describe but believe me (and you will when you see the pics i will post) it is a place that provides true pleasure.

germany won and all were delighted to see that our team had a lively, surprisingly unboring fighting style (a few mumbled/grumbled about germany's weakness in defense but i discount that as negativism at the wrong time in the wrong place).

i ate too much and drank too much while we enjoyed the polish game. we moved on to the schwedlersee which is something close to paradise for me: a small lake near town center which includes a great bar/restaurant operated by young folks and includes a projector tv. the funniest thing: being in an obscure ex-industrial area, hardly anybody knows this place (writing/blogging to an audience of 3.5 persons has its advantages).

there's something in getting drunk in a smoky seedy footie bar but when i have had too many, it's great to de-clothe summarily, and take a swim here:
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Post by marky »

I've actually been thinking about swimming lately, more than usual, despite the fact that global warming is making Seattle greyer than it used to be these days. Grey and lots of rain in June is a sin around here, and the sky has committed it. Granted it did finally get sunny yesterday, but by then I had a hangover headache and only wanted to sleep so I didn't care. I stayed sober Friday night, but that required drinking on Saturday morning, especially since my cat woke me up at 3 am and I couldn't go back to sleep anyway. I soon found that blaring music out open window was the best way to combat the evil gloom of the grey sky.

Anyway, sometimes when I am at work or on the bus, not very often but sometimes, I will suddenly have a vision that I am swimming, I will feel as if my arms are going around in water. Then it passes. I have had this feeling throughout the year, but not very often. Lately I've had it a lot more.

Please continue.
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Post by marky »

Also I do think I should mention that Stuart Maconie's show on BBC Radio 6 today was a Kraut Rock special. The featured album was Can's Tago Mago and Julian Cope was in the studio to play some of his fave Kraut Rock records. (Cope wrote a book about Kraut Rock, which I'm sorry to say I've not yet seen). So anyone who wants to hear some influential German music, just click on "listen again to this show" on the right, beside Julian Cope's picture....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/freakzone/?focuswin
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Post by marky »

Also if much of the town is closed for automotive traffic, Martino, that sounds like a lot of fun. All of it does, please continue. I'm half considering going down to the pub next weekend to catch a game or something. Of course I don't know what games are going to be happening then but I can find out.
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Post by marky »

My favourite bit of German music to be found lately is an album by Moebius & Renzie...renzie whatever his name is. It's so hard to spell. Wait....okay I got it now, Renziehausen, that isn't so hard. Why did I think that name was hard to spell? I don't know.

Anyway it was from the 70's and is really hard to find on CD. And it's called "Ersatz", there's an Ersatz I and an Ersatz II, and someone told me this would sound like New Order's "Your Silent Face". Well, it doesn't quite sound like that, but I still like it and it's very strange. Good with a smoke.

Moebius & Renziehausen's "Ersatz".
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martino
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Post by martino »

i watched the poland/german game last night with a lovely couple originally from eritrea but now naturalized german, and a fine 87 year old jewish lady whos family had been murdered in auschwitz, spent 1943-93 in Brazil but likes it better here.

our team of course includes two swell polish guys and our trainer jürgen klinsman is called the californian because he spends most of his time there, and has introduced american training methods to german soccer. i think they played refreshingly ungermanic. after david odonkor (who is black) shot a goal which however was offside, patrick neuville (the french guy) got the deciding point in. upon which i thought, if this is the future of germany, then include me in.
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Post by megapulse »

martino, that is a great picture. i love it. just my style.

i have one exactly like it of my feet in my hammock in the backyard looking down at the pond. strange. the feet thing comes up again.

i actually went through a summer /fall of photo-ing my feet in different places and different shoes and all that. there is one of mine with my mom's on a mountain rock and one of mine with the hubby's in front of a motorcycle in a little bitty town, etc.

maybe i've got a thing for my feet. . . or documenting travel in some way other than shooting a picture of me saying cheese in front of this or that thing.
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Tommy Martyn
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Post by Tommy Martyn »

Listened to the guardian podcast today. There is a good chance that England and Germany might meet up in the next stage. That's all we need. The host nation and the team with the biggest travelling suppport fighting over tickets. To say nothing of the antics if England get beat. (Not unlikely the way we are playing.)

Here in Cincinnati I'm having a party for the US/Italy game. It's all doom and gloom for the yanks at the moment but I've got my fingers crossed.

I can tell you that sports radio here in town has decided that football doesn't exist. How so? More kids play it than american football and baseball combined. I just don't understand it.
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Tommy Martyn
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Post by Tommy Martyn »

Between 50,000 an 65,000 England fans at the game today compared to 10,00 from Sweden. Thank god that we didn't play Germany in the next game.
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martino
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Post by martino »

everybody here is surprised how loveable the english are. they came here in hords (50k at one point in my town), they are constantly drunk, they sleep by the riverside, 160 of them dove into the river after the first game, they are fat and sunburnt... but they are pleasant and fun-loving. it's quite something.
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martino
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here's the arena where 30k meet to watch

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