Guten morgen, Fußball fans.

Every four years, the world (save America) grinds to a halt and all eyes are focused on the FIFA World Cup. This Contrarian correspondent is certainly no exception. As my output for this esteemed volume has noticeably fallen off, my fandom, in turn, has grown exponentially.

This afternoon, at 16h German time, the Nationalelf, or National Football team, faces Argentina in the quarter-finals of the competition. To say that the nation is holding its collective breath would be an understatement.

Blogger and football correspondent for the Guardian (and full disclosure: one of my closest friends) Stephen Glennon wrote this great piece for the Spiegelonline about how the team represents the current, multi-ethnic nature of the Bundesrepublik and what its play means to the nation as a whole.

Auf geht’s Deutschland! (Let’s go Germany)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcJvAKdA4F4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxUm-2x-2dM

Mostly sure this same thing happened to me during my first few months here in the Fatherland. This clip is from BBC sketch show, “Big Train,” created by Graham Linehan and starring Simon Pegg and Julia Davis. Highly recommended.

Amazing time-lapse video shot by Sean Stiegemeier of the difficult-to-pronounce volcano that has wreaked havoc on the travel plans of Europeans and North Americans. I visited this area last year and it was truly breathtaking.

The German Street View car, found on Brunnenstr., Berlin 20.4.10

Guten tag from Berlin:

The lead story on last night’s ZDF news broadcast, quoted George Orwell, in English. According to the German news station, “Big Brother is watching you.”

Yesterday, several EU governments addressed the news that Google had inadvertently collected personal data, including the names and locations of open Local Area Networks (WiFi is called WLAN here) while gathering footage and data associated with the company’s Street View initiative.
Europe and the EU are very concerned about privacy and data protection in regards to the program.

The German government has clearly shown that it has no problems challenging the search giant when it feels they are in violation of national statutes. As the Street View project continues, it will be interesting to see how German and EU officials react to the collection of data, whether intentional or inadvertent.

Guten Tag from Germany!

In the wake of the iPhone 4G loss/theft debacle, German air carrier Lufthansa has given the world a bit of levity.

According to The Register:

The airline’s director of marketing and customer relations for the Americas, Nicola C Lange, posted the invite on Twitter. Lange sympathises with “how frustrating it can be to lose personal items, especially when it is such a unique item,” and noting Powell’s “passion for German beer and culture,” offers to fly him Business Class to Munich. Here, she says, “you can literally pick up where you last left off.”

And who said that Germans don’t have a sense of humor?

Here is a zany story from the BBC about a Weekend at Bernie’s situation on a flight bound for Berlin, last week.

More soon, Contrarians.

Guten Tag, everyone. Here’s some unusual news from the Fatherland.

It’s been noted that Germans have a thing for planning and strategy. A group of German men took such inclinations to extremes yesterday, forcefully exiting celebrity poker tournament Promi-Poker-Tournier with the winner’s share — an excess of 800,000€ ($1 million USD) — after having laid siege to the match in a tense (and televised) heist.

According to eyewitnesses, the thieves entered Berlin’s Grand Hyatt Hotel armed with machine guns and machetes. The tournament was being broadcast live on German TV at the time.

Officials say that no shots were fired and only minor injuries were reported. Luckily, Boris Becker‘s sub-par poker skills spared him from the incident, as he exited the tourney in an earlier round.

German media outlet and “newspaper” BILD (think your school newspaper mixed with the journalistic integrity of the New York Post) has video footage of the robbery at their site.

No word yet on what the thieves used to hide their identities, but I would have loved to have seen ex-Chancellor masks as an homage to Point Break. Kohl, Schroeder and Merkel taking your money directly, rather than through taxation? Now that’s frightening.

I love the directness of Germans, even when asserting the need for a parenting guide.

Translation: What’s next, dear parents?

[Editor's note: my guess is dyeing her hair blue in a hostel group toilet with bad Euro techno blaring and a guy named Otto mainlining antifreeze the next stall over.]

Barkham provides a brief history of sexuality in the European professional leagues, and also discusses a tolerance promo campaign recently shelved by the Football Association, the national governing body of football in England.

As with most creative arts, musicians have been known to occasionally dabble in the fields other than performance and composition. For many, this departure is merely a distraction, but while for others it can serve to further inspire the creative mind. Examples of this abound with artists ranging from RISD dropout and Talking Heads founder David Byrne‘s Bicycle Diaries (currently #29 on the New York Times Nonfiction Bestseller list) to The Contrarian’s own, well, The Contrarian with his short story “The Cove.”

This past Monday, on the palindromic 01.11.10, Canadian composer and musician for all seasons, Tobias Tinker, brought us the first chapter of his debut novel entitled Symmetricity. Tinker’s project is an ambitious one, combining the release of serialized chapters with an accompanying soundtrack, videos and audiobook readings in the rendering of his tale of Berlin before the fall of the Wall. The unique sketches of Berlin-via-Vermont artist, Josh Bauman accentuate Mr. Tinker’s work.

If the first chapter is any indication, this project could be quite a coup for both the creative arts scene of the capital, and Tinker himself. Herzlichen Glückwünsche!