Chips Off The Old Boc
November 9th marks the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin wall, an event almost as momentous as Everton’s winning four years earlier of the European Cup Winners Cup. History of course being a subjective thing.
Stuart Clark, 17 Nov 2009
If your memories of the former DDR are hazy, www.grenzschild.de/links2.htm will guide you to dozens of sites, which recall what life was like in the socialist workers’ paradise.
Caught In The Net is particularly taken with Cindy und Bert’s 1969 East German chart-topper ‘Der Hund Von Baskerville’, which helped itself to the melody from Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIYRFvQMh7A).
Copyright being a bourgeois western concept, the state record company, VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, gleefully doled songs like ‘Do You Know The Way To San José?’ and ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head’ out to their stable of government-approved pop stars who gave them a communist makeover. These included Deen Reed, a would-be actor from Colorado whose ‘Red Elvis’ routine made him a household name behind the Iron Curtain (www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI0l-r0mlOE).
From there it’s but a mere mouse-click to www.canyousaveher.com/home.html where you can catch Girl Number 9, a “dark web thriller” starring assorted East Enders, Torchwood and Doctor Who types, which for full multimedia effect needs to be watched in conjunction with twitter.com/Girlnumber9.
Talking of everybody’s favourite Galafrian, www.youtube.com/user/doctorwhoempire.com is home to a new Doctor Who web series co-starring Podge & Rodge’s former squeeze Caroline Morahan. Despite the fifty quid and two packets of Tayto budget, it’s excellent stuff and finds Ms. Morahan doing a very passable Angelina Jolie impression.
Which just leaves time for quick visits to www.howtonotsuck.com (self-improvement through deprecation); www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32333269 (vulva portrait pendants); acidcow.com (ace video and photo website); and rantlister.com (“mopping the world’s hate into one bucket”).
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