First 16 days of FIFA World Cup 2006

Um - ok. The first 16 days of the FIFA world cup are over, and I had everything to do but blogging. For the first one and a half weeks there were 3 games to be watched per day, and for the past week there was still at least two games per day. Our office is directly opposite the official FIFA Fanfest which is handy when it comes to watching a game within the atmosphere of a big crowd or watching the cool program they booked for the half-time break. My flat is on the other corner of "el barrio" St. Pauli - which is good as you don't miss anything of the game when you're in the bathroom. But this is all-in-all too much to be fit into a regular BLOG entry, so here's the best of the first 16 days of football:

• Tickets:
  No, I didn't have got tickets in before. I applied for them in the "second round". I didn't have enough money when they opened up the official ticket share forum on the net and prices were fair. Now 170 to 1000 EUR - forget about it!
• Being at the Fanfest is not like being at the stadium. But it's better than staying at home.
• Watching at work is still better than watching at home.
• Doing laundry is better than watching Switzerland-Ukraine.
• Being on a festival and shopping at stands and boxes is better than watching England vs. Ecuador.
• Heartbreak Hotel:
  (I didn't know whom to keep my fingers crossed for)
  Sweden vs. England, Spain vs. France, Portugal - Netherlands
• Tor! Goal! But! Gol!
  Nicest ones by now: 2:1 France vs. Spain (Zidane), 1:0 Brasil vs. Ghana (Ronaldo), and any one of Klose's
• I wanted to blog about Klinsmann and Lehmann 3 month prior to the world cup. Now everybody's doing it, and all of "Klinsi's" critics are suddenly praising him. So I stop here and don't even start about it as I don't wanna join in this flummery, I knew it before and now can't prove it.
• Still 70 pics missing in my Panini sticker album.
• First team completed in the Panini album:
  Angola, followed by Ghana
• Holland:
  If Patrick Kluivert would have been nominated, they would have been better of. Sure!
• Top 100 football players and TOP 50 goalposts:
  Omid Nouripour is not only the successor of Joschka Fischer in the German parliament (yes, the former minister of foreign affairs) but he has posted a well-discussable list of the top 100 best football players of all times and top 50 best goal posts in his Blog. Go there and drop a comment, it's easy-understandable even though it's all in German.
• Top 100 football players II
  Yes, there are some missing in Omid's list: Stan Libuda. Willi (Ente) Lippens. Schlangen-Franz Gerber. Ewald Lienen. And with the goal posts: Sepp Maier. Volker Ippig.
• Wanna join the party?
  Come here! The party's great. It's not that cheap (the beer, the food - forget about the tickets, really...) but the weather's mostly gorgeous, at least for Northern Germany. Read about it in The New York Times or Der Spiegel international

WGT 5 and last - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

Meanwhile...
I uploaded all my pics to FlickR, but it's just few snapshots as the mobile cam was not really good enough for the indoor festivities and the weather not good enough for good situations outside: Crowds of blacks in cloaks don't really make a picture.

The summary

Most important lesson learned:

• I'm a fan of D-Beat

Rider of the weekend

• Mois Dix Mois: beginning with screws for the drummer's boots in the morning, further on that only one special photographer was allowed to portrait the singer (except for the first song where there was "public shooting", no flash). Most important item on the list: black straws. Matching the water-bottles which all had to be gaffa-taped black as well.

More bands missed, did I?

The Old Dead Tree from Italy.

Dope Stars Inc.

:Of The Wand And The Moon: (as I think that a signing at Prophecy productions can only be outstanding)

Theatre of Tragedy: Thanks to Hein and Lorentz for introducing "Ronan the Hobbit" and a short but great party mayhem!

Tetris of the weekend

• Cantus Buranus: How do you fit 80 musicians on the Agra-Stage? Somehow Corvus Corax and their crew managed to. Impressive musical mystery play. Just a shame that everything was too packed for letting the people the space to move.

Ausbeutung des Wochenendes:

• Liebe Goten: Wisst ihr, warum eure schnieken Korsagen bei Xtra vergleichbar billig sind? Nein, nicht nur weil Xtra alles gleich im Dutzend billiger fertigen kann und deswegen ganz viele von euch gleich aussehen in ihrer Individualität. Sondern auch, weil ihre Mitarbeiter den Luxus von nur einer Viertelstunde Pause pro Tag haben. Wo habt ihr über's WGT-Wochenende also das Geld hingetragen?

Short reviews:

Saltatio Mortis: Opposite to all the other bands who started "medieval" sounding, Saltatio don't get boring when carrying on with it. "Heptessenz" is still their best record. Unfortunately they want to "develope" as well - please, rather stay with interpreting outstanding songs and music than writing mediocre own stuff. Sad but true.

Even though listening to Deine Lakaien is rather like a trip to me than listening to particular songs, it was great to finally see them live. Hey! Here is no "but" in this phrase.

Hey, isn't that a cover version again? By OMD? And this? Hey, it's not Madonna, but...
Ok., that was funny guessing. But, geez: Yes, it was Paul Humphreys of OMD, and the new project is called One Two. So if you are in Eighties pop (and who is not?!) - thanks for the nice time warp back. But... in the end it was really boring... just to mention.

How do you say "overrated" in latin?

• Omnia. Really nice pagan folk. But, honestly: After 3 days of non-stop flute'n'lute you should give the stage free for other artists to freshen the hearing of the audience again. And you don't have to bash the other artists in your myspace-blog afterwards... as I heard no one scream for more Omnium when there was still the encore for Liv Kristine...

Und außerdem:

• Danke an die beiden Mädels und den Typen, die mich vom Kohlrabizirkus nach Katatonia zur Straßenbahn mitgenommen haben!

Tweetie's prayer... (German)

Irgendwie sehr zutreffend:

WGT 4 - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

About bands and music again:

Longest Queues (without the chance to get into the venue at all)

1. Catastrophe Ballet
2. Rosa Crux (Geheimtipp des dritten Tages, eigentlich sprach jeder davon am Samstag)

Most stylish Corsage of the festivals

• Liv Kristine
  Actually I didn't expect this gig to be this good as it turned out. Her voice is more beautiful then ever, the open air gig, the comparably small audience and the surroundings mixed up to a very special campfire atmosphere - and especially the people who worked in the boothes in the "Pagan Village" stressed that this is finally (*sigh*) some different music than the some dozen medieval-sounding bands who seem to be all alike after a while.

WGT 3 - Sonja unter Fledermäusen (Day 2)

Auf deutsch geht's weiter, denn jetzt geht es zu Fuß vom Hotel zum Völkerschlachtdenkmal.

Unser Hotel liegt nämlich sehr idyllisch, mitten im Industriegebiet in einem Naturschutzgebiet (sic!) zwischen JVA und Sicherheitsverwahrung - äh, forensicher Psychiatrie. Also wirklich gaanz ruhig. Im Hotelführer werden die Joggingpfade hier gerühmt - aber wenn man ehrlich ist, sollte man eher zur Vorsicht mahnen, wenn einem jemand in der Einöde begegnet...

Mit der Zeit der Napoleonischen Kriege hatte ich mich bisher eher weniger beschäftigt, da dachte ich, das Völkerschlachtdenkmal sei ein guter Anlaß dafür. Ist es vielleicht, aber der Grund, aus dem es gebaut worden ist, lag ganz offensichtlich in der politischen Situation der Planungs- und Bauzeit. Und das ist dann ganz interessant, wenn man auf eine Zeit und Strömung, mit der man sich historisch-wissenschaftlich intensiver befasst hat, durch ein Denkmal geradezu mit der Nase gestoßen wird.

Dieser Ort hat mitnichten einen erinnernden oder gar "weihevollen" Charakter - und Leute, die einen so etwas erzählen wollen, haben einen Specht am völkischen Brett vor ihrem Kopf klopfen: "Sanct Michael" (ist hier der Erzengel oder tatsächlich der Heilige gemeint?) erinnert stark an einen Bremischen Roland mit Flammenschwert. Und das "Gott schütze uns" scheint weniger fromme Bitte als gegenseitige Versicherung: Hatten wir nicht vor 70 Jahren den Allmächtigen auf unserer Seite? Werden wir schon wieder haben. Das alles passierte in einem Kaiserreich, das sich in seinem "völkischen" (so der Fachbegriff) Nationalismus zunehmend in Europa isolierte und damit den Ersten Weltkrieg in kauf nahm, in den es steuerte. Schon sehr ironisch, dass das Völkerschlachtdenkmal, das die politische Großwetterlage im Alltag der Menschen so gut abbildet, genauso stümperhaft geplant und realisiert wurde, wie die sie bestimmende Politik. Lustig und teuer, denn das wird die Sanierung gerade.

So viel jedenfalls zum oberflächlichen Abgeläster. Echte wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis gibt es hier erst, nachdem ich "Vom Kult zur Kulisse" gelesen habe.

Wo ich gerade bei der "Völkischen Bewegung" des späten Kaiserreichs bin, die den Grundstein für die Nationalsozialisten legte:
Auf der Händlermeile kann man am Stand des VAWS die Kosmologie der Blavatski kaufen, einer der Vordenkerinnen (oder sollte man "Vorträumerin" sagen?) der Völkischen Bewegung kaufen. Nein, das Buch ist nicht indiziert, es ist nicht verboten - und die Diskussion über die wirre politische Orientierung des VAWS will ich mir hier auch schenken, das hatten die Grufties gegen Rechts oft genug. Ich finde auch gut, dass man sich Bücher kaufen und lesen kann, die die Geschichte geprägt haben - aber ich möchte auch drauf hinweisen, was man sich da u.U. gekauft und gelesen hat.

WGT 2 - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

It's not really obvious, but actually the Wave Gotik Treffen is a music festival. Some things in short just to put them straight:

Band I really, really missed out on Friday:

• Obviously Samael who must have rocked the Parkbühne according to several viewers.
  First gig in ages without "My Savior" and - what was the second song, pls., Hans? Dawning of "Era Two", hu? Just kidding, witnesses spoke about a return to the sound of the "Passage". Would be great, dudes...!

Bands I might have missed:

• Surely The Gathering. Can someone comment who watched their gig? I was really looking forward to see these old friends, but what I heard was not so good. So pls. post!
• And can pls. someone post who has seen The Old Dead Tree in Kohlrabizirkus? Thanks as well.

First messed-up backstage room:

• Deathstars.
  Maybe you have to when you have such a band name and have to build up a reputation. One band I think I really missed out, regardless of what mixed feedback I got about them. If you know a glimpse of German, read my Close-Up review. They were awesome in Stockholm!

First band I actually wanted to see and did watch:

Katatonia

Please. Please go and buy their great albums! Start with "Last Fair Deal (Gone Down The Drain)", go on with "Viva Emptiness", back to the old ones and after a while I slowly even dig the new one, "The Great Cold Distance". Maybe I still have to listen to it on a long, lonely car-ride over the Autobahn.

But... Tonight was adding to the long line of letting-down gigs in the history of me watching them. Maybe it's my bad aura, dunno. Maybe it's circumstances - in this case that they were booked to Kohlrabizirkus, a former market hall which was adding much too much reverberation to their sound, so that the outcome was downright painful for the first three songs. (By the way, reverb is called "Hall" in German which means the building causing it as well - very fitting in this case...)
And maybe this weak beginning is already half of the spirit of the show not getting shape: The band was playing together much better than in Stockholm, but the audience was not really enthusiasticly reacting on Jonas Renske animating them to clap or things like that, and there was still a drift between the stage-acting of Anders Nyström on one side, the Normanns on the other side and Jonas hidden behind his hair in the middle. On the very positive side: This was the best light effects I have ever seen with Katatonia, and the fitted to the mood prefectly.
But hey, music is about the song: Go, buy their albums!

Setlist Katatonia:
Leaders
Wealth
Soil's Song
My Twin
Deadhouse
Teargas
Sweet Nurse
Ghost Of The Sun
Deliberation
Criminals
July
Evidence

WGT day 1 - Sonja unter Fledermäusen

Nee, Alter. Bin jetzt den ganzen Tag auf dem WGT, aber hab noch keine Band gesehen, ehrlich. Erst hat es an der Parkbühne geregnet, dann konnte ich mich nicht entscheiden. Man, und jetzt spielt nur noch eine Band", sagte der Unbekannte, der vor der Agra-Halle auf einer Begrenzung saß, in sein Händi, zündete sich eine Zigarette an und guckte in dieser unnachahmlichen Mischung aus bedauernd und verpeilt.

Dear international readers,
I'm at the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig for the first time of my life. Most of my impression are so utterly German, I'm gonna write them in my mother tongue. If you're interested in them as well, drop me a comment.
Second note: Due to several things, the major of it being work, I was only able to get to Leipzig late on Saturday. So this is where it all starts:

So ungefähr muss es in der Savanne aussehen, wenn eine Herde Nilpferde den Weg einer Herde Elefanten kreuzt: Aus der Tram kommen Trauben von Fußballfans von Lokomotive "Lok" Leipzig, darunter auch der nicht nur hier im Osten obligatorische Anteil von rechtsradikalen Thor-Steinar-Shirtträgern mit Hohlschädel, zur Tram pilgern nicht minder kostümierte Grufties. "Ey gugge mal! Das gipz ja nisch!" sagt die jugendliche Glatze und zückt den Fotoapparat, um das nicht viel ältere Gruftmädel mit Krönchen im Haar zu fotografieren. Währenddessen ist er schon längst von einem dezenteren Gruftie Ende Zwanzig auf der anderen Straßenseite focussiert worden - schön aus der Hüfte mit einer gute Digicam geschossen. Obwohl rein optisch die Tierallegorie nicht stimmt - also: so muss es aussehen, wenn ein Schwarm Fledermäuse eine Rotte Wildschweine kreuzt...

Wie würde es wohl aussehen, wenn man im Zoo mindestens an Schimpansen, Elefanten und Delfine Kameras verteilen würde? Wen würden die aufs Korn nehmen?!?

Apropos Zoo - der Zoo von Leipzig soll "wunderschön" und "super-interessant" sein, sagt Sabine. Wird als Tipp vorgemerkt!