What I read:
Enlarge image
Instructive Helmreich book: Walking through New York while reading
Photo: private
New York City on foot
I miss traveling. In the past few months, on foot or by bike, I have explored large parts of the neighborhoods of Prenzlauer Berg, where I have lived for years. But the northeast of Berlin is, with all my love, not quite as exciting as Manhattan's Lower and Upper East Side, which I used to explore while walking. Against this special, some might say: banal wanderlust, because New York is a terrible yearning punch, this book by the former New York sociology professor William B. Helmreich, first published in 2012, helps. He has literally wandered his city: within four years he walked around 6,000 miles through almost every street in the five boroughs, almost 121,000 blocks, including the remote and dangerous ones. He chatted with local residents, took in the atmosphere,used nine pairs of tough San Antonio shoes - and created an entertaining and instructive sociogram of his city. I also picked up the book again because I recently read that Helmreich died of corona disease in spring 2020 at the age of 74. So with double sadness I am strolling with him, at least in my imagination, through Brooklyn or Queens, Midtown or the Bronx. What you will learn (again) from Helmreich for the hopefully coming months of gradual opening: How easy and rewarding it can be to get into conversation with people in passing. You just have to be friendly and should be narrow-minded in every wayI also picked up the book again because I recently read that Helmreich died of corona disease in spring 2020 at the age of 74. So with double sadness I am strolling with him, at least in my imagination, through Brooklyn or Queens, Midtown or the Bronx. What you will learn (again) from Helmreich for the hopefully coming months of gradual opening: How easy and rewarding it can be to get into conversation with people in passing. You just have to be friendly and should be narrow-minded in every wayI also picked up the book again because I recently read that Helmreich died of corona disease in spring 2020 at the age of 74. So with double sadness I am strolling with him, at least in my imagination, through Brooklyn or Queens, Midtown or the Bronx. What you will learn (again) from Helmreich for the hopefully coming months of gradual opening: How easy and rewarding it can be to get into conversation with people in passing. You just have to be friendly and should be narrow-minded in every wayWhat you will learn (again) from Helmreich for the hopefully coming months of gradual opening: How easy and rewarding it can be to get into conversation with people in passing. You just have to be friendly and should be narrow-minded in every wayWhat you will learn (again) from Helmreich for the hopefully coming months of gradual opening: How easy and rewarding it can be to get into conversation with people in passing. You just have to be friendly and should be narrow-minded in every way
Forego attitude
.
What i hear:
The cover of the "Pet Shop Boys Covers" was designed by artist Norman Palm
Photo:
Martin Hossbach
Pet Shop Boys, but with a difference
Speaking of narrow-minded: I have never been able to share the euphoria of many of my fellow critics towards the British pop duo Pet Shop Boys:
I just don't get it.
One of these over-fans is the Berlin soundtrack curator, label owner and (recently) wine agent Martin Hossbach.
Ever since he sent me his lovingly compiled sampler with cover versions of well-known and not so well-known Pet Shop Boys songs, sung and interpreted by indie artists such as Die Kerzen, Dirk Von Lowtzow, Düsseldorf Düsterboys, Teresa Rotschopf or Hans Unstern, it has even opened up I am becoming ignorant of the magic of songs like "Home And Dry", "New York City Boy" or "Rent".
The limited cassette edition is unfortunately already sold out, but who else has a tape deck?
(Okay, me.)
Available from Bandcamp
What i watch:
Enlarge image
Kaley Cuoco in "The Flight Attendant"
Photo: WarnerMedia Entertainment / Cinema Publishers Collection / imago images
Flight attendant on the verge of a nervous breakdown
Has everything been emptied on the streaming shelf? Rather out of boredom, I looked into the new HBO Max series "The Flight Attendant" (Amazon Prime) - and then binged all eight episodes. The plot: A party-addicted New York flight attendant with severe alcohol problems and family trauma wakes up in Thailand next to her brutally murdered one-night stand - and gets caught up in a drunk and clumsy gangster plot. "Big Bang Theory" mascot Kaley Cuoco can finally shine in a leading role that demands comedy as well as drama, urban neuroses collide in the craziest way with a crime and action plot, the vodka flows in streams from countless on-board bottles : It's a gorgeous, still just believable chaos, just right for the little escapism in between."Flight" in English does not only mean "flight", but also "flight".
Bonus track:
"IIIII need you" is the ringtone of Kaley Cuoco's cell phone in "The Flight Attendant" frantically every three minutes in a hi-NRG sound.
As an older pop fan you recognized it quickly: It is the sampled intro of the almost forgotten hit "Two of Hearts" by US singer Stacey Q from 1986. I'm back in
heavy rotation
right now
.