I'm off for a long weekend in Berlin, the city of the 24 hour party. I was wondering whether to put up some modern Berlin minimal techno as an appropriate post. But Christ, that stuff bores the tits off me most of the time.So in a slightly different vein here's Liza Minelli's untouchable turn as Sally Bowles from the 1972 musical film, Cabaret. Set in the doomed and decadent glimmer of Berlin just before the rise of the Nazis, it's a film that manages to be both exuberantly joyful, and darkly sinister at the same time. In my view Cabaret is the best musical ever written. I can't think of any others that juggle such a potentially incongruous cocktail of totalitarian politics, sexual abandon, romantic love story, and cracking songs with anything near the humanity and skill that is pulled off in Cabaret. If you haven't seen it, do it. Schnell!
At the centre of it all is Liza Minelli. This was the role she was meant to perform, and by 'eck she puts some welly into it. She owns pretty much every scene she's in, and sings the shit out of every song she's given.
I grew up with the soundtrack to this playing often in the house, and it's now a constant companion on my iPod too. Masterful. So I'll be humming this along the streets and alleys of Germany's capital. Life is a cabaret, old chum.
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