The Summerloch Starts Here

Image courtesy QMDS500

The yuppies next door have given their kids two instruments of torture: an electric automobile and an electric motorcycle, both of which sound like dentists' drills and each of which costs over a thousand Euros apiece. I propose adding the above conveyance to the mix. Of course, the little girl will have to be replaced by an automaton, but if the gator is hungry enough it'll have served its purpose.

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Monday morning Berlin will at last see the start of this year's Sommerloch, the "summer hole" in which nothing whatever happens. Meanwhile, we still have the Love Parade to endure, although it's becoming more and more irrelevant to the city and more and more a ploy to get the local equivalent of New York's bridge-and-tunnel kids -- in this case clueless rural kids in search of a little sex, drugs, and techno -- into Berlin and squeeze as much money as possible out of them while bombarding them with branding opportunities for the latest crap merchandisers want them to buy. You'd think this isn't such a lucrative move on the city's part, but there are also plenty of clueless young jet-setters who come in for this and camp out in expensive hotels.

Fortunately, its impact on my own neighborhood is minimal, but I'd sure hate to be a tree in the Tiergarten (Berlin's huge central park), after a month of football fans relieving themselves followed by a million or so b'n'ts doing the same. Still, as an index of the city's financial desperation, this all is quite instructive. No doubt there are people huddled away in rooms right now trying to figure out what next summer's attractions will be. Another Love Parade, for sure. But what could top the WM?

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It's also an index of how slim the local music scene has gotten. Very few big concerts on the agenda for this summer, and I suspect people just aren't going out much any more. One inescapable image, though, is that of Dieter Thomas Kuhn, the campy entertainer who gently mocks the Schlager world of German mainstream pop and who, for some reason, is playing Central Park in New York this year. Even with his posters everywhere, some people may not have noticed the logo for his booking company, DTK Musik und Marketing, which features a screaming darky. (Note, clicking that link will display the DTK MuM page only briefly, but long enough for you to get a glimpse at what I'm talking about). My question is, what on earth is he thinking? DTK, that is, not the darky.

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Meanwhile, for a glimpse of German hi-tech, not to mention a propensity for taking credit for everything, there's this video. Not that I'm sure why a German would want to take credit for it.

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More from the Sommerloch as it widens!