"Out of the record business and into the music business."

This looks like a great documentary for one of those rainy thursdays coming up....

Homepage for the film

philipkdickfans.com: "This feature about Philip Dick's "Valis" experience was published in Weirdo comic #17 from summer, 1986.

It is an interesting graphic interpretation of a series of events which happened to Dick in March of 1974. He spent the remaining years of his life trying to figure out what happened in those fateful months.

You will find all 8 pages of this story here. The file sizes are rather large (120-140K each) so that the text was readable and the detail visible. "

Findarticles.com has an interesting old story about "The Black Club" here: " For a night of genuine 18th-century-style roistering, try Blacks, 67 Dean Street, W1. Founded in 1992, the club occupies the site of a former tea-room frequented by Samuel Johnson. Restored to its rambling Georgian splendour, complete with the largest collection of Hogarth prints in the world, by former Norfolk poacher Tom Bantock and Guiseppe Mascoli, the building offers "a refuge from the disgusting political correctness" of today.

"It's hard to sum up a typical Black's member. However, it's difficult to find one with an IQ of less than 140," says Bantock, who describes himself as "a completely irresponsible drunkard".

Prospective candidates first need to be approved by a 150-strong all- female committee, all allegedly hand-picked by Bantock. Once in, the new member is free from the strict rules imposed by nearby clubs like The Groucho, as long as they respect Bantock's ban on ponytails (Bantock claims to have cut off seven so far), mobile phones and chewing gum. "Apart from these rules my only problem is with people who haven't had a drink too many," he adds. For the morning after, breakfast (full English, of course) is available for members and non-members alike. Open 11am-2am, membership (London) pounds 200pa."

Dinner at 9 and Film starts around 11

The Entertainer Tony Richardson 1960 "The Entertainer" is a fascinating film based on the play by John Osborne ("Look Back in Anger"); Osborne co-wrote the screenplay. Olivier plays Archie Rice, a fading entertainer in a fading medium (music halls) in a fading empire (the Suez crisis of 1956 figures into the action). Archie's speech to his daughter (Joan Plowright), onstage in an empty theater, about being dead behind his eyes, is especially memorable. Along with other fine actors, Alan Bates and Albert Finney as his sons flesh out this film, which is a must-see for fans of any of these actors.

Film starts at 9

A Foreign Affair Billy Wilder 1948 A congressional committee visits occupied Berlin to investigate G.I. morals. Congresswoman Phoebe Frost, appalled at widespread evidence of human frailty, hears rumors that cafe singer Erika, former mistress of a wanted war criminal, is "protected" by an American officer, and enlists Captain John Pringle to help her find him...not knowing that Pringle is Erika's lover.

Dinner at 9 and Film starts around 11

A Letter to Three Wives Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1949 In A Letter to Three Wives,' Deborah Bishop, Lora Mae Hollingsway, and Rita Phipps are chaperoning underprivileged children on a day trip picnic. As they board the riverboat that will ferry them up-river to the picnic grounds, they are stopped by a messenger who delivers a letter from their dear, close friend, Addie Ross. Addie, who was supposed to accompany them on the day trip, quite unexpectedly, left town that very morning. After debating whether or not they should open the letter, with a bit of trepidation, they do. And so begins the story of three wives, three husbands, one letter, and Mrs. Addie Ross. Addie Ross wrote in the letter to her dear, close friends Deborah, Lora Mae, and Rita, that she was so sorry to be leaving town, permanently. And, that by the way, she took one of their husbands with her. Which husband has run off with Addie Ross? That question is the driving force of this drama, with just a bit of comedy to hone its edges. This movie is compelling, there are no gaps; from start to finish you're hooked. Be there no doubt, you'll be kept guessing until the end. All is not always what it seems. A Letter to Three Wives,' is a story nicely staged by a series of three flashbacks, each chronicling meaningful events in the lives and marriages of the three wives.

thursday 16.8.07 Intersoup (Schliemanstr. 31, Prenzlauerberg)

saturday 18.8.07 Luftwasser (monumentenstr. 32, Schöneberg)

thursday 23.8.07 King Kong Klub (Brunnenstr. 173, Mitte)

All at 22, all great, all free. All in Berlin.

Yes, that show about a strange little bookshop!Yes, all episodes of season 2! Starts at 9!

The links for this show are over here/ madscience.antville.org

Me and Brother John are working on it, ok? We still need to record Bernie though.... So, Bernie get your ass over here to the little recording studio in the backstage area of the bookshop and we can finish the damned thing!!!

"EVERYTHING GOES PARTY WITH SPECIAL GUESTS...SCREAM CLUB, from Seattle, performance artist and live electro weirdo John Callaghan from UK, Geffen3 from Berlin and special dj guest; Marzipan Marzipan

hosted by lady gaby this party will be wonderful and weird. @ Zentrale Randlage Club, Schönhauser Allee, P-BERG!

Thursday 23rd August, 10pm start...

This Party will be ......and very f.... entertaining!"

-What about the next Fuel, Gaby?

"Edgar Reitz's semi-autobiographical film follows the fortunes of a family in a small rural town in Germany from the end of the First World War through to the early 1980s."

Tartan Video released a dvd-box of series 1 with english subs!

DVDs on Amazon UK:

Heimat [1984] English Subs Heimat (Slimline) [2007] Heimat 2 - English Subs Heimat 3 - A Chronicle Of Endings And Beginnings [2003] - English Subs

Wikipedia: "Berlin Alexanderplatz, originally broadcast in 1980, is a 14-part television miniseries adapted and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from the Alfred Döblin novel of the same name, and stars Günter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, Elisabeth Trissenaar and Gottfried John. The complete series is 15 ½ hours long.(...) Beginning in 2006, the series underwent restoration and remastering. Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered received its world premiere on February 9, 2007 at the Berlin International Film Festival for which episodes 1 and 2 were shown. The entire series ran on February 11 in five installments. A DVD set containing additional material was released in Germany on February 10, and will be released in America from the Criterion Collection before the end of the year."

So, whenever that dvd-box is out, we will get it and show the whole damned thing, ok?

Anyone

This has vanished from YouTube....

The original version by Howard Hawks. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, Peter Lorre and Marlene Dietrich.

Another blog from Berlin: Observing Hermann the German. And an amnesic American lost in Berlin.

You might have noticed the list of topics up there. There's also a link for the monthly reading group and a new RSS-Feed . Scroll down the column on the left. The RSS-Feed is supposed to be a selection of updates from other Berlin Blogs in English. Right now we included Ed Ward, Berlin FAQ and Sign & Sight, but you may suggest other Blogs.

The Newsclips on the right are links to stories we find interesting in general.

The Berlin Newsfeed on the right displays stories from Google News, Google Blogs, Upcoming.org and Flickr tagged with the keyword "Berlin". So, we don't choose those stories, ok?

SF-Fan.de has a list of Second Hand SF Bookstores in Germany

Here is the entry about us:

"Von aussen sieht es eher wie ein Antiquitaetengeschaeft aus, ohne gezieltes Anlaufen hat man den Laden daher schnell uebersehen. Drinnen suche man die kleine Treppe, die in den Keller fuehrt, unten gibt es dann die ueberraschung: Mindestens 12 RE(!)englischsprachige SF, ein Grossteil davon UK-Ausgaben ab ca. 1960. Die (auffallend wenigen) Anthologien und die SF-Magazine (zusammen 4 RB) befinden sich nicht im Keller sondern auf dem Wege dorthin (neben der Treppe)."

We're gonna show the version with english subtitles!

Wikipedia: "The thriller/drama involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by secret agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. It stars the late Ulrich Mühe as Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his chief officer Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as a prominent actress and his lover, Christa-Maria Sieland."

Official: Sony Pictures Classics presents THE LIVES of OTHERS

Wikipedia/ Black Books is a British sitcom broadcast on Channel 4 starring Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig, written by Dylan Moran, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley and produced by Nira Park. The show has twice won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy (2001 & 2005) and won a Bronze Rose at the Festival Rose d'Or of Montreux in 2001.

The series is set in the eponymous "Black Books", a small, independent, second hand book shop in the Bloomsbury area of central London owned by foul-mouthed, eccentric, misanthropic Irish drunkard Bernard Black (played by Moran). The show is based around the lives and often surreal antics of Black, his assistant Manny (Bailey), and their friend Fran (Greig).

Black Books Homepage at Channel 4

Plenty of clips on YouTube

Kreuzberg in English / Big map

This is work in progress...