I never saw his face, only imagined it while I hollered down the phone line. I imagined the sort of angles and jut and and tan worn by urban sunbathers of the time. He was the new restaurant owner. I was the angry neighbor. It was 1982.
A godsend apartment: the entire top floor of a two-storey walkup perched above the lifestyle porn and display-case kitsch of Glauber Strasse in Lichterfelde, a locality in the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin. Roof garden out back, two rooms, a bay window.The rent was $250 a month, of which I paid half in liquor from the PX.
I came home one afternoon and saw, across the street, opposite my room, a sort of party taking place on the balcony of a house that had until then been boarded up. Shoulder pads and glazed cocaine smiles clinking beer mugs, toasting – it surely must have been – a primo investment. A new restaurant was opening. The theme was traditional German food. The menu would boast Currywurst, Kassler, Potato pancakes and Bratwurst.
Late into that night, through the tin outdoor speakers, the number-one hits of 1983 (Germany) played in, as they say, heavy rotation. It would stop for a while until, I suppose, someone flipped the tape, and then the tomtom fill and “Ja, dann wird wieder in die Hände gespuckt” would swell again. “Wir steigern das Bruttosozialprodukt.”
I remember yelling, “Ich hoffe, dass diese Party nicht zu lange dauert, denn ich bin langsam sehr genervt!“
The only thing more annoying than German pop music is Ukrainian politics.
On the war jacket, more war.
Yesterday, Z attended the third Ukraine-South East Europe summit in Dubrovnik hosted by at Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was in tow.
Z said Ukraine counts on its Balkan friends and the support of important allies, including the United States.
"In October, November and December, we have a real chance to move the situation towards peace and long-term stability," he said. "The situation on the battlefield creates an opportunity to make this choice - a choice in favour of decisive action to end the war no later than 2025." — Reuters
Whatever. Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak was part of Z’s entourage and looked at little greenish. Maybe something he ate.
Z will meet Emmanuel today in Paris, a day after the former met with Ukrainian recruits training on its territory. French military instructors have been subjecting them to combat-like conditions, with stress, noise and drones.
The new force will symbolically be named the “Anne de Kiev brigade,” after a Kyiv princess who became queen of France in 1051 upon marrying King Henry I.
Ukrainian Brigade No. 155 will eventually be made up of 4,500 troops. Of those, 2,300 are being trained in France, forming three battalions of infantry, plus engineers, artillery teams and other specialists. The brigade’s other battalions will be trained by Ukraine. — AP
Ukraine’s president will visit Berlin on October 11.
I assume he will visit Teufelsberg.
A shout out to all my friends living in the tropical depression that is Florida. I hope you all got out alive.