Big Big Bawdiness In Weimar Republic Germany

Sometimes the impact of a personality is just so arresting that, even with great distances of time and place, it demands your attention.

And so it is for me with Claire Waldoff, rough and bawdy Berlin carbaret singer of the 1910's and 1920's.

Born Clara Wortmann, the singer arrived for work in Berlin in 1903, saying:

I fell passionately in love with Berlin. Not because the city was beautiful or the Imperial capital, but because it was Berlin, with its special atmosphere, its vivacious and curt character

For the stage, she adopted a gruff persona and the rough slang of the working class native Berliners, full doubles entendres and sexual innuendos:

I began to become the Berliner, a prototype of the Berliner, a representative of modern Berlin

This is typified in ''Ach Gott Was Sind Die Männer Dumm'' ('My God How Stupid Men Are'):

A regular at the Chat Noir in Friedrichstraße, and the Eldorado ...

Eldorado 1932

... Claire Waldoff limited her performances to three songs only, with no encores, which allowed her to play a number of different venues each night, establishing herself as a major star.

The rise of Hitler and fascism in the 1930s put an end to Waldoff's career, and she and the lover with whom she had always lived openly, Olga Von Roeder ...

Claire Waldoff and her lover, Olga Von Roeder

... went to love in Bayerisch Gmain - and took up gardening in a very serious manner.

Sadly, or otherwise, after listening to 'Ach Gott Was Sind Die Männer Dumm' I feel just a tad more 'delicate' and less hairy-chested than usual!

How bout you?

I guess the Isherwood posts put me in the mood for things of this sort, and the angle it gives on gay social history.

If you'd like more, then I came across an interesting blog 'Berlin Cabaret' - LINK.

The post on Anita Berber, who you may know through Otto Dix's painting ...

... is particularly good.

And my bet is this work was used as one of the models for the look of the dykes at the Kit Kat Klub in the 1972 film of 'Cabaret. What do you reckon?

Another more obvious model being Dix's portrait of the same year ...

... of Sylvia von हर्दें.

Magical Dali in Far Western China

A few years back, I was wandering round far western China, as you do, and I happened across the ancient local capital of Dali. In fact the city was the centre of both the Bai kingdom of Nanzhao (8th and 9th centuries) and the Kingdom of Dali (937-1253).

The approach by boat across Erhai lake past an island temple heralded something special ...

So when I landed ...

... I headed off in the very highest spirits to the city gate ...

... and, almost a daze, just wandered round the narrow streets ...

... crowded with old buildings ...

... and shops ...

When I poked my nose into this alley way leading to the courtyard of a home, the inhabitants invited me in for tea - the magic continued to be woven!

I'd heard there was a temple complex in the nearby hills ...

... and when I arrived all was shrouded in mist ...

... the magic was not letting up!

Walking back down to Dali, I by chance wandered into the rarest temple of all in the Peoples' Republic - one still functioning for religious observance ...

... and replete with resident monks ...

... who had just in fact completed their daily laundry.

The magic was still in top gear!

Back in town, I was feeling more than a bit fazed. A couple of travellers began chatting to me and everything cleared quite quickly - I realised I hadn't spoken at any length for a couple of weeks and that this had led to the disorientation.

Having perked up, my new friends and I followed this group of women ...

... to what turned out to be the local market day ...

One of by new companions couldn't resist this trio of older men just calmly watching life go by ...

As you'll have noticed, everyone but everyone is dressed in traditional clothing.

The people in this region belong to one of China's (92) minority groups - and dress as they do to demonstrate themselves as separate and different from the Han majority.

A bit of reading back in Australia confirmed the development of a movement in the area for local autonomy.

Music That Catches The Zeitgeist

You know how some pieces of music capture a whole culture and era, well, one aspect any way ... well, at least stereotypically any way ... .

This is one of those.

And in this context, I just love the way Rita metamorphoses over the decade to keep in tune ...

Hope you like this one from the mid 1960s ...

... I'm still buzzing round the room to it!

Another Holy Grail

Just when I thought I'd seen all the film footage associated with the Ballets Russes and it's Prima Ballerina Absoluta ...

... I Amazon-ed up this 1970s interview ...

Hope you enjoy this rarity!

'Mack the Knife' - The Original

Bertolt Brecht - 'It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk'

Guess we all probably know 'Mack the Knife' from Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra.

Or from Lotte Lenya if we're a bit aware of the leftist anti-fascist theatre of Bretolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

Well, in my peripatetic travels about cyberspace today, I came across the original - in the sense that Bertolt Brecht is singing ...

He gives it that hard edge the meaning of the song dictates - partly it's all those harshly flapped [r]s!

I've thrown in Lotte Lenya Singing 'Seeräuber Jenny' ('Pirate Jenny') also from 'The Three-Penny Opera' ...

... for those whose tastes run this way.

Enjoy!

A Serious Exercise in Nostalgia -

Bette in Full Flight @ The Continental Baths (1971)

This is going to be a serious exercise in nostalgia - Bette Midler in full flight at the Continental Baths in 1971 singing 'I Shall Be Released'. Barry Manilow is on piano and Joey Mitchell on drums.

Hope you can be patient with the quality of Jimmy Vito's amateur footage - the frames jump around a bit at the beginning but the issue is straightened out by about half way through.

Cos if you can accept the technical inadequacies the performance it's the kind of classic high-voltage compelling performance you'd expect from The Divine Miss M at that period.

Enjoy!

Finding Desktop Background Images

'Wuthering Heights' (1992)

I don't know about you guys but I tend to change my desktop background image every few days. Otherwise I just stop 'seeing' them.

And I'm often scratching my head about where to find new kinds of images, having run the gamut of works of art, travel snaps, old family photographs - the usual stuff.

I used to use porn images but occasional unexpected visits associated with urgent needs to check email lead to some decent surprises for all concerned.

Now the point of this post is that I've just found a whole new venue for harvesting images - snags of films I'm watching on my puter. And I'm stunned how often I reach for the icon of my SnagIt software to capture yet another indispensable image.

Today's collection came from the 1992 'Wuthering Heights' (above), 'The City of Your Final Destination' (2009) ...

'The City of Your Final Destination' (2009)

... and 'Assault Girls' ...

'Assault Girls'

... and 'True Blood' - for something completely different ...

One of Lafayette's V-Visions from 'True Blood'
(Season 3, Episode 10)

Which as much as anything says something about what movies I watch ... and how many a day!

Any confessions on your part here?