Word: berlin
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Walking around Berlin recently, the American visitor could be forgiven for thinking Germany was the 51st state in the Union - and that it would vote heavily for Senator Barack Obama on November 4. Joggers in local parks proudly sport Obama T shirts; the trendy expat hangout White Trash Fast Food was turned into an Obama campaign center for a day; and a city magazine has published instructions on how to craft little American flags to wave in welcoming the junior Senator from Illinois, who visits on Thursday...
...Obama's people and Berlin authorities finally agreed to stage the speech instead in front of the Siegess?ule (victory column) monument - or "Goldelse" ("Goldlizzie"), as Berliners affectionately dub it because of a golden statue of the goddess of victory that crowns the monument. Built in the second half of the 19th century to commemorate Prussian victories against the French, the Danes and Austria, the column has been a backdrop for various mass events, such as the annual "Love Parade," a huge open-air techno party. The right location, some commentators only half-jokingly remarked, for a political rock star...
...media can barely contain their excitement. "Germany Meets the Superstar" read the front page of the weekly Der Spiegel in reference to a popular TV show, while the tabloid Bild called Obama "Berlin's New Kennedy!" and gushed, "It's like 1963," describing the presidential candidate as "just as young, sexy and charismatic" as John F. Kennedy. And that's before he's even set foot here...
...Obama will depart Jerusalem before dawn on Thursday to fly to Berlin, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Federal Chancellery and with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Foreign Ministry. Berlin is also where the only major public event of the trip is scheduled: a speech before what are expected to be tens of thousands at the Victory Tower in the Tiergarten. Campaign officials have been sensitive about the characterization of that event, insisting that it is a substantive foreign policy address, though given German enthusiasm for Obama, the atmosphere is expected to look more...
...approach is informed by a proprietary affection for music. Schnabel's Beethoven doesn't smile very much, but then icons never do. + Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 (''Emperor''). Claudio Arrau, piano, with Sir Colin Davis conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden (Philips). The pedagogical grandson of Liszt (through his teacher in Berlin, Martin Krause), Arrau, 83, is equally at home in the Transcendental Etudes, the Brahms sonatas and the Beethoven concertos, lavishing on each his pellucid tone and his hardy technique. The Beethoven concertos have long been a specialty, and he recorded a memorable set in 1964 with Bernard Haitink...