And The Wall Came Down

[peterbirks]

I got my haircut today; one of the disadvantages of having short hair is that you have to do this once a month or so. Anyway, there was a new girl in the hairdressers, and she started chatting, and I ventured a guess that she was German. "Most people think all Germans "SPEAK LIKE ZISS", she said. I said that I knew another German woman, and she had a similar way of constructing sentences, which was how I guessed. She said that she had only been over here for five months and that she only had schoolgirl English when she arrived. If that was the case, she has learnt the language far faster than I would dream of learning German if I was over there. A few charming errors, mainly relating to the hideously complicated English tense system (I particularly liked "the bus driver had droved a different route") added to this curious accent that is kind of a cross between French and Albanian, had a beguiling effect.

Anyway, this girl was from Berlin, and we got talking about various parts of it. She said that she was from the former east, and I then realized that she probably didn't remember the Berlin Wall coming down. I was right; she said that she had been six at the time and that she vaguely recalled it but that, being in the east, it was hardly headline news.

I then realized that I had been six when the Berlin Wall WENT UP. Jeez.

---------

I've just found out that the female violinist with the Bob Dylan band in Vegas was Elena Frammerman (I think that is the right spelling), whom I have seen before, on Jools Holland as part of the fabulous trio the Hot Cowtown Club, or something similar. In retrospect, I should have spotted this, in that her style of playing is quite distinctive and it souded vaguely familiar at the time.

-------

Jet lag is still pretty bad. I went to bed at 2.30 this afternoon and slept through until half-past seven; so I doubt that I will get to sleep before 2am, and I will probably wake up an hour later (that is what happened last night). So it goes.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

In passing, "The Hot Club of Cowtown". It's a reference to The Hot Club of Paris (Django Rheinart - I think). I have a live album of theirs; the crowd is extraordinary.

Was it you who recently commended Brautigan? I think so. You prompted me to reread A Confederate General and that was a rare treat. In return, can I suggest you either read or reread Hangover Square by the cruelly under-rated Patrick Hamilton? That will also be a rare treat.