Knitting Club

This beginner class covers all the fundamentals: learn to read
English knitting patterns, design a simple scarf pattern, cast on
stitches, knit, purl, and cast off stitches. This class is also ideal
for those who haven’t knit for years and want a refresher. Classes are
in English, but Maschenkunst owner Daniela will be on hand for any
needed German translation.

Dates: 3-5pm, Sunday February 8th, February 22nd, and March 8th
Cost: 50€ total, plus materials. Class participants will receive a 10% discount at Maschenkunst for the duration of the class
Location: Maschenkunst, a lovely knitting store in central Cologne. Christophstr. 9-11
Complimentary refreshments
To sign up: Email Shira at papou.knitATgmailDOTcom

Popularity: 8% [?]

New Furniture Trends

Passion for Fashion….Are you Trendy?

These are just some of the headlines that captured the International Furniture Fair of 2009 in Cologne.
With a headline like ´passion for fashion´ one would think of the catwalks in Paris, Milan and New York, but no, this is truly a passion for new trends in interior design through a magnificent adventure with shape, dimension and texture.

Walking through the endless halls, I was increasingly aware that
interior design has evolved enormously with almost 3 dimensional
aspects in rugs & carpets. Occasional furniture pieces that were
once cubic are gone, floating curves enter a new period, and yet
the designers are borrowing some hints from the past.

The Art Deco period is still an inspiration to all.  Amongst the new
trends that caught my eye were a ´Schaukelbett´ or ´Rocking Bed´.  You
can rock yourself to sleep in a wonderful creation from the company
´Private Cloud´who presented a bed to impress:  Made from an aluminium
frame with wicker mocca and attached wheels and feet, this rocking bed
can also be fixed with four foldout legs  (www.privatecloud.de)

For those looking for new concepts in floor and wall coverings
with a lasting appeal then look no further than the company ´Apavisa´.
Apavisa porcelanico, is a manufacturer in the production of
high-tech porcelain. Their panels come in a wide range of
finishes, from marble to granite and in a wide variety of colours. The
product is made up of metallic particles recreating the authenticity
of natural steel, that due to external factors can display progressive
aging. The material offers a steel look in finishes such as copper,
silver, patina white to name but a few.  An interesting product with
huge potential and a ´must have´ for designers and architects working on
the commercial front with an interesting appeal that can be worked into
a scheme in the private home.

Another product which caught my eye was ´Gube´ instant furniture. Based
on the simple principle of outer and inner form, they say, not unlike
the human body, the Gube bones are locked through the Gube skin and
combined via plugs and connectors. No tools are necessary for this
system. It is very flexible and made from translucid synthetic with inner parts made from MDF which can be white or black-coated.
The end result is a basic cube which can be transformed into a variety
of furniture assortments. You can make up TV units, coffee tables, book
shelves…..the choice is endless….very practical, transportable and a
system which you can build on and develop as your needs require. Check
it out for yourself. (www.gube-system.com)

Lilly Lauterborn, Interior Designer, Cologne/Galway

Popularity: 24% [?]

CHORAL EVENSONG

 Choral Evensong withh the Bonn English Singers (Conductor: Fraser Gartshore)

 Music by Dyson, Stainer, Bairstow

 Saturday 14 February 2009 at 18 hrs

 Venue: Antoniterkirche, Schildergasse 57, 50667 Köln

 Tram: 1, 3, 4, 7, 9 to Neumarkt

 This event jointly organised by the Anglican Chaplaincy of Bonn & Cologne and Antoniterkrche, Cologne

  

 
http://www.anglicanbonncologne.de

 

 

 

 

Popularity: 18% [?]

American Protestant Church

AMERICAN  PROTESTANT CHURCH BONN
Kennedyallee 150, Bonn Plittersdorf
Tel: 0228/ 374 193  Fax. 0228 / 374 723

Email: office@apcbonn.dede

Web: http://www.apcbonn.de

Sunday Worship 11.00 am Rev. Steven S. Gaultney, Pastor

We are an international, English language, interdenominational congregation of Christian people from over 20 nations, a microcosm of the worldwide body of Christ. A fellowship where Christians of every denomination can find encouragement, support and mutual understanding through the worship an other ministries of the church. The purpose of our ministry is to love one another, invite others to join us, to keep God at the centre of all that we do, to help others and to teach and equip each other for life. The congregation meets in the Stimson Memorial Chapel, Bonn-Plittersdorf .

Popularity: 18% [?]

Ana Popovic – Still Making History

I got my
first taste of blues Ana Popovic style at the Harmonie in 2005 so it seems
fitting to round off the year with a concert from Serbia's blues queen back at
the Harmonie, and to see both where the road has taken her, and which roads she
intends taking along the blues highway.

 

 

 

---

 

Last year
Ana's fansite organized a get-together in the garden of the Fiddlers pub.  As blue music doesn't mean blue skin the
first fans I greeted were safely inside in the warm this time and tucking into
hot meals.  They were up from Belgium.  It's taken a couple of hours on the motorway
and will take a couple more back afterwards but everyone is smiling and looking
forward to the show.  When I check back
at the Harmonie itself I find the same can be said of Ana and band – all smiles
in anticipation of a good show.  Back at
the entrance and the fans are gathering in a mood of… well I guess you get
the picture.  There is a list of bands
guaranteed to draw good crowds here: Julian Sas, Walter Trout, Sunny Skies,
AC/DC tribute band Dirty Deeds, and Ana is amongst them.  If The Harmonie had a curtain it could be said to
have been pretty well a full house by ‘curtain up'. 

 

In the
event, the ‘curtain' is represented by Bassman Ronald Jonker as he pounds out
the evenings first riff to announce ‘Miss Ana Popovic'.  The lady takes the stage, clad head to foot
almost  in white.  The almost being beige suede boots.  It's true that I never mentioned what Walter
Trout or Louisiana Red had on their feet but then, as in many things, Ana is
not your average blues musician.

Check out
almost any photo gallery of Miss Popovic and you will be sure to find at least
one shot of a foot – usually on a guitar pedal.

Strange but
true.  There's a lot more to Ana than
sartorial elegance though – there's a little matter  of living up to the ‘female Jimi Hendrix'
tag.  The way things are going it might
soon come to Jimi being labelled ‘the male Ana Popovic'.  She does just keep getting better and
better.  There is a guitar break during
‘My Hometown' for example where she out basses Ronald Jonker which is quite a
feat.  Then of course there is ‘Navajo
Moon'.  The announcement of this song
used to split Ana audiences into two sets: guitar instrumental fans who settle
down with ears keenly pricked to enjoy every nuance of every note and rock fans
who's feet start itching to find the bar after two minutes.  Not any more though.  ‘Navajo Moon' in 2008 builds into a showcase
of blues/jazz guitar at its smouldering best – and then tilts over into rock
anthem territory.  It's so crowded in the
Harmonie that no-one could head to the bar if they wanted to, but you get the
feeling everyone today is of the ears keenly pricked brigade and their ears are
bountifully rewarded.

 

Blinded by the light (or the blues?) – Ana Popovic

 

It's often
a sad thing that the Harmonie has a 10.30pm curfew and tonight is no
exception.  Ana would happily have played
for three hours but she and us have to settle for  two and a half.  In the event she's won
everybody over after just a couple of songs. 
"You get your moneys worth in the first fifteen minutes, and the rest of
the show is free" as the joke goes – only today it's fact.  But there are inevitable casualties when you
have to cut half an hour from your set. 
String problems mean there is no acoustic guitar and therefore no
acoustic set and no ‘Calenders' which sadly for me is a personal favourite that
bit the dust.

Another
staple number missing today was Hendrix' ‘House Burning Down'.  I made a mental note to ask Ana if this was
an attempt to finally quash the ‘Hendrix' comparisons but forgot to file it in
my memory so never found out.  Even
without such a crowdpleaser though the AP Band 2008 knows how to rock.  It's hard to imagine Ana going back to the
trio days now that Michele Papadea on keyboard has so firmly established
himself alongside Ronald Jonker as a master of many musical styles.  Drummer this evening is another
‘rocker' though.  Ron Wright, like Andrew Thomas before him,
is an excellent rock sticksman but sometimes I miss the subtlety of Denis
Palatin at the back.  Maybe partly because
of this there don't seem to be many ‘quieter' moments in the set Outside of
‘Navajo Moon'.  There is the bluesy ‘U Complete Me' but otherwise everyone is
rocking and certainly when ‘Long Way Home' hammers into top gear it seems three
times as loud and proud as the live version on CD from 2005.

 

Ana and Ronald Jonker are all smiles

 

There's
time after the show for the Fansite to sit down with Ana and find out what's
happening.  The ‘New' CD "Still Making
History" is now not so new.  It's spent a
large part of it's life so far in the American Billboard Blues charts though, so
expectations are high for a follow up.  A
re-mix of SMH has been finished just this very week we hear.  It's a hip-hop, disco mix variation of the
original blues songs but Ana's new material to be recorded next year is, she assures us, going to be
more what we expect.  I hope you realise
Ana that SMH has made us expect A LOT! 
Anyone taking bets on a slogan five years down the line: ‘Joe Bonamassa
is the male Ana Popovic'? 

     

 

 

PHOTOGALLERY

Popularity: 5% [?]

Telekom Surprise

Following their hugely succesful advertising campaign using footage of Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma on tv's 'Britains got Talent' it was perhaps not so surprising that the popular Welshman took the stage as a 'surprise' guest at the Telekom Headquarters Xmas Party in Bonn this week (see picture).

The plucky Welshman overcame 'Little' problems like barely being able to hear the backing music over the very enthusiastic reception to 'Sing Opera' including 'Caruso', 'Silent Night' and of course, an encore of 'Nessun Dorma'.  When I stuck my nose between bodyguards at the bar later to introduce myself as "A fellow Englishman"  he was gracious enough to ignore my error.  Thanks Paul!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Louisiana Red

First the
good news, the Harmonie concert hall in Endenich is now a smoke free zone (My
lungs say a big thank you!).  Now the
even better news:  Louisiana Red is not
just alive but at 76 musically he is very much still kicking.  

---

 

 

‘Blues is a
feeling…’ as the song goes.  It was
certainly a feeling I got travelling to the Harmonie on Sunday.  My tram was five minutes late for a connection that
had a five minute time window.  Result: tram
arrives as bus leaves.

Blues, I hear you calling in the howling wind as I hail
a taxi to Endenich.  

 

In the warm at last, I grab a
table together with Peter and his wife from the Julian Sas siteand a
photographer colleague anxiously informs me it's five minutes to showtime and his camera battery is dead. Yes, Blues is most certainly a feeling by the time
Bill Baum and his merry bluesmen take the Harmonie stage.  Their set is, as to be expected on such a night, firmly rooted in the Chicago
bluesgenre.  ‘Caledonia’
and co are all warmly received and certainly sound much better here than they did mid-afternoon
in the Bad Godesberg shopping precinct where I last caught the band.  Certainly too, devoid of the little kiddies
running around by the stage on that day, the average audience age has jumped
considerably.  

 

 

 

 

 

No one
though was older than the man sitting quietly alone at a side table in
an immaculate white jacket, with slick black curly hair and big black aviator sunglasses.  He looked all the time like he was itching to
get up and join in the fun onstage – and finally at around 9pm he did. 

 It may be that just
being old and black and playing the blues is enough to get applause these days.  If  so then Louisiana Red is putting in one heck of a lot of unnecessary effort.  He could just take the money and run.  It’s quite
clear from the start  that Red has enough energy to run, but thankfully he prefers to
play and sing instead.  The Bluesbenders
do an excellent job behind him, offering plenty of bark behind the music yet always
leaving the bite to Red himself.  Bite he
does too – and when he picks up his bottleneck to run off licks from his old Kay guitar you can almost believe
he could be heard even if ACDC were playing back-up.  His foot taps, and so do all the feet on all
the people watching.  When Red lets out deep,
throaty laughs during particularly fierce bottleneck runs  the Harmonie is transformed into an old Chicago Juke Joint. 
In keeping with this atmosphere a couple start dancing right before Red,  he gives
them a bemused look over the top of his big sunglasses.  Somehow though the couple look right and the
rest of us sittingly sedately down look all wrong.

 

 

Red putting Bill Baum straight on a new blues theme 

 

 

Without a rehearsal as back-up, the Bluesbenders don't have it easy this evening.  They have to play it all by ear, and I
suspect not all the sweat on their faces comes from the lights this evening.  At least they can relax with Little
Walters classic ‘Duke’ – They have after all the perfect man for the job as harp player
Uwe Placke delivers great solos on top of an authentic guitar sound that only
an authentic bluesman like Red could deliver. 
On that subject, how many people can you hear now playing John Lee
Hooker that played with JLH in the fifties?   Red is one of them, and his version of
‘Hobo Blues’ dedicated to “My dear departed Uncle, John Lee Hooker”
brought thunderous applause.  The band is
still concentrating hard to get things spot on. 
Bill Baum looks at Red – plays a couple of notes – looks again… “Got it
Billy? Same tune…!” He laughs – and Louisiana Red is off again, this time into
Muddy Waters territory with ‘I Can’t be Satisfied’ and truth to tell, If the
big man played all night we would still not be satisfied.  No one ever is when they get perfection – and Louisiana
Red is as perfect as it gets at playing authentic blues.

Come 10.30
and someone has to tell Bill to tell Red that its time to finish. I’m really not sure who was more disappointed
– us or Red himself.

 

 

The one and only… 

 

So I’m back
at the bus stop in the cold and typically, the bus doesn’t come.  When I finally do get back to Bonn Centre the
Tram info table blinks out that a tram is due at 11.32.  Next thing I know it's blinking the next tram
at 12.15 and all I see is a misty, dark, empty road down which I start walking.  “Blues”, as they say,” is a feeling”.   

 

PHOTOGALLERY

Popularity: 5% [?]

Julian Sas – Still Preaching

 

If a concert hall could have what could be described as a 'Home Game' then Julian Sas at The Harmonie in Bonn would be just that.

Except that Sas is from Holland.  How does he manage to sell the place out every year yet remain something of a secret tip amongst blues and rock fans?

Well the answer from me is 'I don't know' but I'm glad that if he has to be a 'Geheim Tip' as they say here in Germany, that Bonn is  no secret to his booking agent.  In fact he visits every year like Father Christmas.  And just like Santa, it's always a pleasure when he comes to town.  My last review called him 'The Missionary'.  Well the good news is that he is still preaching 'The Gospel according to Muddy Waters'

 

 

 

A first for me at a Harmonie concert was seeing a young kid being carried out of the audience.  He hadn't been screaming 'Julian!' (or 'John, Paul, George, Ringo or Bill' for that matter) but it was proof that JS fans come in all shapes, sizes and age groups as much as it was proof that it can still get pretty hot and sticky when the hall has a busy night.

 

At shows end I see the said youngster, upright again, with poster and pen in hand waiting for autographs.  So how does that fit in with the rockstar ego?  Julian was talking after the show about a festival in Finland. "This one is for Rory Gallagher" he remembers saying – and a crowd of 12.000 Fins went wild.  But importantly to me listening to Julian tell the story, it wasn't the fact that 12.000 fans went wild to hear HIM playing that mattered – he was moved that so many people there remembered Rory.  That, purely and simply, is Julian Sas.  If he has an ego, he keeps it in a locked up box in the attic, and the box is very definitely covered in dust.

 

It would be easy to think you were pretty important when you come out to a hall that is literally packed out to the corners.  In fact, had the Harmonie been twice as big I suspect the corners would still be packed.  They are certainly filled with hard rock music as Julian, Tenny Tahamata (bass) and Rob Heijne (drums) get going.  It's the classic power trio combination of course and on Sas classics like ‘Burning Soul', ‘Aint no Change'  and ‘Devil Got My Number'  you can firstly see why the hall is packed every year the show hits town, and secondly, you wonder why the band isn't playing stadiums instead of concert halls.

 

 

 

 
There are a couple of surprises for the audience in the shape of songs scheduled for the new CD next year.  The slow blues of ‘Sailing into the Unknown' for instance is a great workout for  blues guitar.  It's a song about coming home – and one wonders if the Harmonie isn't Julian's second home by now – certainly there is a family atmosphere about the show.  Peter from Julian's German website and Bill from ‘Rory's Friends' are here.  Bernie from the Mr Music shop is only missing because of illness.   It seems like half the audience know Julian, but maybe thats just Julian.  The extra effort people give can be seen in his whole presentation: from the Entrance tickets with photo on, through the deluxe packaged ‘Dedication' CD/DVD.  People put in extra effort for Mr S it seems.

 

No-one puts in more effort for the music itself than Julian though.  ‘The Way it Goes' is an uptempo song in the ‘Radar Love' mode that promises good things for the new release, but it's inevitably "one for Rory" that gets the biggest cheer as Julian and band launch into a ten minute blistering version of the Gallagher classic ‘I Take what I Want'.  A counterpoint to the up-tempo mayhem is Sas's own melancholic  ‘Blues for J'  dedicated tonight to  Bernie at ‘Mr Music' (Blues for B maybe?)

 

 

 

 

It sometimes seems like there are two concerts in one when Julian Sas is in town.  One is a hard rock package with pounding drums and thumping bass, the other is a rock/blues show.  I can't help smiling every time I see Julian switch to his Gibson Thunderbird and pick up a glass slide. Whatever else Julian has played, does  play or, for that matter will play in future – at the bottom of it all is Muddy and co.  He talks briefly after the show about keeping the blues alive and if I heard it from anyone else it might seem like media hype.  When Julian tells me how much of a buzz he still gets every time he puts on a classic from the likes of Muddy Waters though it comes from the heart.  How do I know?  Because some have a rock n roll heart, Julian Sas has a heart made out of Muddy Water Blues.    

Photo Gallery

Popularity: 5% [?]

Great Music in Bonn

There are some great concerts coming up in Bonn soon to warm up the cold dark evenings.

You might might even be better calling it 'Blues Town':

Walter Trout, Louisiana Red, Tony Joe White and Ana Popovic…

Just some of the great acts heading for the Harmonie before Christmas. 

Popularity: 8% [?]

Aynsley Lister – Out on his Own

Aynsley
Lister has balls.  I know that not just because
he says so in one of his best songs, but because he showed it in Bad Godesberg's Klangstation
on Sunday.  Classic Rock magazine
recently voted Lister amongst the top ten contemporary Blues artists of the new
Millennium – in the good company of John Mayer and The White Stripes – so playing to
twenty people must have been a shock to the system.  True to tradition though ‘the band played
on…'

---

 

Arriving at
the Klangstation in Bonn Bad Godesberg was odd. 
I had my camera and permission to take photos.  The only thing I was worried about was
this:  Would there actually be a
concert?  My concern started when I discovered
that the Klangstation website had a calender for November but no concert listed
for Sunday.  My usual source of
information, the Mr Music CD shop in Bonn centre was closed all weekend, and phone
calls to the hall just rang and rang.

 

 

 The face of blues future? – Aynsley Lister

  

It was a
relief then to see a poster on the door of the Venue with Aynsley Listers
silhouetted figure on it.  Even more
comforting to look through the glass door and see the man himself soundchecking in an
empty hall.  The trouble was that come
showtime the hall was still virtually empty.

As Lister
began a couple of solo acoustic numbers I could almost feel the sinking
feeling.   There were around twenty five
of us watching – then Aynsley introduced the band and the audience was promptly
reduced by two, as drummer Rich ‘Spoons' Spooner and new Portugese bassist Midus
Guerreiro took the stage.  The hope of a
sudden surge of late arrivals gradually subsided and we all decided to make the
most of things (the band included). 

 

The Aynsley
Lister sound is an eclectic mix.  There
is more than a hint of John Mayer in quieter songs like ‘Beautiful' and
certainly a very strong hint of ZZ Top when he rocks it up on ‘Everything I
Need'.  There is also a hint of someone
else about his appearance – his spiky hair style a mix of Beckham meets Michael
Owen.  But there is also an edge to the
music (and the hair) that is distinctly Aynsley Lister.  It's surely this edge that made Thomas Ruf sign the
man up for his Record Company and it's this edge that gets him noticed by the
magazines like ‘Classic Rock' and gives him more female fans than the average blues artist I suspect. 

 

I think it
would be unfair of me to review the performance itself.  No complaints I hasten to add, but who could give a super show in such
circumstances?  In the event we got a
pretty good evenings music, including a super rendition of Prince's 'Purple Rain',  a full show and an encore too.  Hats off  for not making an early exit. I can only hope that Aynsley and the band
found some of the famous British sense of humour to get them through.  As when an elderly member of the audience
went to the stage front and requested (in German) that Aynsley addressed the
crowd in German.  Poor non-German speaking Aynsley looked
like he was hoping the stage would swallow him up – or maybe swallow the old
guy in front of him up.  Maybe you should
learn ‘Danke Schön' for future use though Aynsley?  I fondly remember that from Rory Gallagher
Rockpalast days.  On the subject of
Rockpalast, there is a live DVD available of the Aynsley Lister Band – it was
recorded at the Harmonie in Bonn in front of a large audience.  Which is to say that the fans are out there, but they deserve to
know that there is a great show in town and Aynsley Lister deserves to have a
good audience for his excellent music. 

Aynsley and me – I'm the one with the glasses

Please come back again Aynsley – Just make sure we know when.

Photo Gallery

Popularity: 6% [?]

« Previous Page — Next Page »