Ross Thomas – Zu Hoch Gepokert (Alexander Verlag, 2023)
Gelesen: 22. – 24.08.2023 (netto 247 Seiten).
Aus dem Amerikanischen von Gisbert Haefs.
Ein weiteres unterhaltsames Buch von Ross Thomas mit dem professionellem Sachenwiederbeschaffer Philip St. Ives. Diesmal verschlägt es St. Ives in die alte Welt, nach London. Abhandengekommen ist ein altes Schwert, das offensichtlich jede Menge Geld wert ist.
Das Buch ist deutlich lustiger als die bisherigen, St. Ives gerät in London nicht nur in bizarre Situationen sondern an auch an eine absolut wundersame Truppe von Snobs, Loosern, Killern und … Polizisten.
Und aus einer einfachen Sache (Mittelsmann und Geldbote bei der Rückabwicklung des Diebstahls) wird eine ziemlich lustige Story: Hier ein wenig who-dunit?, dort ein wenig der Verarschte verarscht den nächsten Verarschten und am Ende ein perfektes Show-Down (das mit der freundlichen Deportation aus England endet).
Das Original ist von 1973 und damit wieder ein wunderbares Buch, vor allem wenn heutige Maßstäbe (an so gut wie alles) angelegt werden. Ich mag das definitiv, diese Geschichten strahlen ein ganz eigene Ruhe aus.
Aus dem Englischen von Cornelius Hartz und Stefanie Kremer.
Hui, was hab ich mich durch dieses Buch gequält. Zum einen war ich zu oft zu lang auf Konzerten (und damit weniger Lesezeit), zum anderen verliert man sich beim Lesen in der Geschichte … wie in Treibsand.
Das ganze läuft als Kriminalroman aber der Krimi selbst, der ist nur ganz hinten. Vorne steht Kleinstadt (im ländlichen Nebraska der 80er) und eine arme Sau: Hal, 28, Farmarbeiter mit dem Verstand eines 12 jährigen.
Und dagegen steht eine Gemeinschaft bei der jeder jedes Geheimnis kennt. Kleinstadtmief. Kleinstadtidylle. Take your side. Beobachtet oder Behütet?
Als dann die junge Peggy Ahern verschwindet kommt Hal unter Verdacht. Und das böse in Form von Misstrauen, Angst und alten Wunden schleicht sich in die Gemeinschaft.
Mehr tiefes Sozial-Drama, weniger Krimi. Und für mich schwer zu lesen. Ich denke ich werde das Buch weiterverschenken, das lag mir so gar nicht. Freiwillige?
PS: Warum wird der Titel, der inhaltlich zur Geschichte passt, sowohl als Wort als auch als Cover so abgeändert? Ich bin mal wieder lost warum das im Deutschen so sein muss…
Erin Flanagin – Deer Season (University Of Nebraska Press, 2021)
Me mate Frosch claims that this summer is the best ever summer for live mu-sick and in full consequence he has been following eg. Civic and Rancid throughout Europe, been to Punk Rock Raduno in Bergamo and Rebellion in Blackpool. This week he went to see Devo (Tuesday, Berlin), Beltones (Wednesday, Berlin), Anti Heroes (Thursday, Monkeys), The Prize (Friday, Astra Stube) … only to finally go blatantly local with us on this Saturday.
The Bad Job Boys set this up, mustered fellow locals Slanders to the rooster and got folks upstairs into the Hafenklang.
And they choose to take the stage first:
Bad Job Boys – Setlist (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 19.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de)
They have tidied up the set list, re-arranged the sequence and added brand new songs – a proper approach to win over the local audience.
Within that, they even unintentionally cut short my favorite song:
Fun moment around the 1:00m mark when Frank and Stephane realize that Bodo got carried away and ended up playing his bridge way too early … but as they are fully in sync they master that challenge with ease (and speeding up a 02:30 song to 1:46 – awesome times).
Their set definitely benefited from the new mix of songs and that some of the new songs have more umpf, more drive. Already that evening the ode towards the cooking abilities of Christiane & Luke named “Luke kocht” was an immediate sing-a-long hit.
Bad Job Boys (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 19.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
Here is another great sing-a-long:
From where i sit a great set, only hampered by insufficient lights. During the set Bodo even complained that on his side of the stage it was way too dark and whilst he can play “blind” a little bit of light would help (that help never came though).
Bad Job Boys (Hafenklang, Hamburg, 19.08.2023 (c) gehkacken.de 2023)
On the positive side his massive guitar play was having – at least for my ears – a near perfect sound. Where some found it a wee bit too loud i found it exactly perfect with a wall of sound like experience.
Perfect set, well delivered and taking a willing audience along. Good stuff.
Next Slanders, the other band of Greg from the Haermorrhoids. Almost same territory but slightly different in setup and sound.
This is how they kicked off:
Closing my eyes and having Gregs very unique voice in my head i would almost guess Haermorrhoids but in real it ain’t. Very different songs (though from the same broad genre) and definitely very different twin guitar work.
And whilst stage attire was not aligned at all the stance was: Feet planted wide, neck of the guitar to the left and gentle lowering towards the back. And matching sound to that A stance they delivered for sure, less #ramonescore – more #poppunk.
When the drummer did setup the drums it felt from in front of the stage like ages, me and some mates where already joking (slightly annoyed) that we most like get an amateur setup paired with an amateur delivery. Boy, we were so wrong!
The drumming was outstanding and pounded the Slanders through this set list:
Good set, with loads of applause from the i guess half filled room. The singing though by Greg forever triggers Haermorrhoids with me. I guess i will need to see them Slanders more often to wash that away. And yes, i will!
Now Go! and check them out:
And because it was a pleasant evening with perfect companionship i kept chatting after the show to Tom, Dick and Harry … no, actually to many of the lovely friends around up to and including receipt of personal love message for this blog…
… only to realize that i was almost the last man standing and the bands had perfectly cleaned out the stage of the Goldener Salon at the Hafenklang. A definite first, did not expect that to happen.
And me mate Frosch? He was right almost 100% – the missing % is the Descendents cancellation (and i somehow luckily could not make up my mind in time to get a ticket for Melkweg in Amsterdamned).
I guess Frosch had nowhere to go on Sunday other than out into the sunny weather but i am damn sure he is already getting ready for the Get Lost Fest (that i have to let go for 2 weeks of battery re-charging and reading in Denmark).
You should get ready for that too – the fantastic Split Systems will play twice – on the MS Hedi and at the Hafenklang!
