The Bobbington Post

Loopband snelheidstest. Met microfoon en noodstop.

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 14:59:00 +0100

Loopband snelheidstest. Met microfoon en noodstop.

Check & Run. Je weet. Aflevering III Alles over...

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:24:24 +0100

Check & Run. Je weet. Aflevering III Alles over hardloophorloges… Park Sonsbeek is de locatie, het weer is goed en de hardloopschoenen bouncen op de muziek

Omdat #voeding ook belangrijk is. Nu een stukje rennen. #HalvevanEgmond...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:32:00 +0100

Omdat #voeding ook belangrijk is. Nu een stukje rennen. #HalvevanEgmond twitter.com/CheckAndRun/st…
— Check & Run (@CheckAndRun) november 6, 2012

"anar·chie (de; v) 1 toestand waarin de bewoners van een staat niet aan wetten gehoorzamen en geen..."

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:06:11 +0100

“anar·chie (de; v)
1
toestand waarin de bewoners van een staat niet aan wetten gehoorzamen en geen overheidsgezag erkennen
2
toestand van ordeloosheid”

- Van Dale Nederlands Woordenboek (via iamsexpistols)

Check & Run: op weg naar de halve marathon van Egmond

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 20:37:00 +0100

Check & Run en BesteProduct gaan de uitdaging aan. In januari 2013 doe ik, Bob Hardus, mee aan de halve marathon van Egmond. En dat natuurlijk niet alleen voor eigen eer en glorie. De training is begonnen, en die gaat gepaard met het testen van hardloopgear. In een wekelijkse blog + video hou ik jullie op de hoogte van de nieuwste hardloopgear én mijn conditionele vorderingen.

Wat kun je verwachten?
Behalve bloed, zweet, tranen en kilometers kun je tests verwachten van onder meer hardloophorloges, running apps, blenders (voor de gezonde voeding), hardloopkleding en schoenen, e-readers (voor het lezen van hardloopliteratuur in de donkere dagen), camera’s, headsets en meer hardloopgerelateerde producten. Ook ga ik advies inwinnen bij diverse experts zoals voedingsdeskundigen, schoenenspecialisten en professionele atleten. Als jij denkt dat er producten zijn die absoluut getest en gewogen moeten worden door Check & Run laat het mij dan weten.

De blogs en video’s zullen verschijnen op het vertrouwde blog van BesteProduct en bij onze partner hardlopen.nl, waar je terecht kunt voor dagelijks nieuws omtrent hardloopactiviteiten en atleten. Trainingsupdates en andere nieuwtjes over Check & Run kun je ook vinden op Twitter. Volg@CheckAndRun

Waarom we dit doen?
Naar schatting rennen zo’n vier miljoen Nederlanders regelmatig een rondje door hun wijk, het park of het bos. Natuurlijk voor de lol, voor de gezondheid, en last, but zeker not least, omdat het te gek is om jezelf klaar te stomen voor je eerste hardloopevenement of om doelgericht op jacht te gaan naar een nieuw persoonlijk record. Check & Run zorgt ervoor dat jij up to date bent qua hardloopgear en online trainingsmogelijkheden. Zo sta jij straks goed voorbereid aan de start.

because we all like the chainsaw..........

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:51:00 +0200

because we all like the chainsaw..........:

Movienight Berlin Style: meet, walk & watch “You want...

Wed, 30 May 2012 22:53:00 +0200

Movienight Berlin Style: meet, walk & watch

“You want to come see a movie tonight? We meet at Ostbahnhof at 9 o`clock?”

“Yeah sure!”

Ostbahnhof. Hundred people waiting… The crowd starts moving a bit past nine. We walk, cross the Schillingbrücke and enter an empty space with big abandoned buildings, one of them called “Die Berliner Eisfabrik”. Yes, it’s there, along the Spree close to the infamous Kiki Blofeld. And the rest? Discover yourself, all I say is free beer, food and a wonderful movie in a marvelous surrounding. And it won’t be the last time.

'Todesstreifen' returns for one night

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:14:00 +0200

At the `Friedvolle Walpurgisnacht`in the Mauerpark in Berlin last night, a strange sensation came over me when I looked at the former piece of wall, close to the stadium. The whole park was filled with nearly more police than visitors. All the policemen strategicly positioned at the foot of the wall, as if, for one night, the former ‘Todesstreifen’ was back, fully functioning.

Luckily no action of what so ever kind was necessary to keep peace. People dancing, partying and police walking around, everybody happy. But if you looked up the hill, it was a strange image.

The Confusion Of Mass Violence

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:36:00 +0200

I don’t know if it was because of my trip to the homeland Fryslân, in the The Netherlands - where they speak the official second national language: Frysk -, or something else, but it seemes like language is starting to mess up things a little. Working as a journalist in Dutch, living in Berlin speaking, of course German, communicate both online and interrelational in English. Et moi, j’apprends le Francais pour ma copine et ma future vie peut etre la.

Anyhows. I was nodding in the U-bahn as i woke up with a view on this EXTREME AD shown above. I read, half sleeping, something about: “massageweld” which in Dutch means: MASS VIOLENCE. But then, finally awake, I realised it was German I was reading, and the meaning quite the opposite: “massagewelt” with a T on the end, is to be understood as: WORLD OF MASSAGES

56 iPads forced to display art… could be a short resume of...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:07:28 +0200

56 iPads forced to display art… could be a short resume of the exhibition ARTandPRESS (23. März 2012 - 24. Juni 2012) in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. The first floor of the exhibition space is filled with a total amound of 56 iPads displaying artworks related to the topic. A big amount of useless digitalism in a furthermore impressive colonnade. See it for yourself in the video!

Luckily I can say there is the ground floor that hosts some real art (I mean, for looking at a picture and a bio we don’t have to go to a museum, do we?) of participating artists. The works of Ai Weiwei, Marlene Dumas, Gerhard Richter, Damien Hirst and others, bring things a bit more in perspective. Still the question remaining: Why forcing 56 iPads to display art in a museum?

Fernweh Budapest: “Szex in the busz - Coffee no...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:13:00 +0200

Fernweh Budapest: “Szex in the busz - Coffee no Cukor” and lots of other snappy ways of spelling words, the amazing Ruin Bars - unfortunately non-smoking areas since April 1st, no joke. Le Danube. And me watching a group of American students getting scammed by a couple of players in the Gellérthegy Park. 48 hours in Budapest.

BerlinBook review: Brunnenstrasse 3 by Frank Sorge - reads like a Currywurst

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:52:00 +0200

I have to admit, I read the first part of the book sitting on the toilet. It’s not that I want to refer to Frank Sorge´s Berlin miniatures as ‘shitty lecture’ it’s just that since I seem to do a lot of my reading on the iPad, I had no other paper books hanging around the bathroom for a while…

Big City?

But then, what is there to say about the story collection Brunnenstraße 3 - Berlin (2011, Eichborn Verlag, language: German) by Frank Sorge?

The main character - Frank Sorge - takes his readers by the hand and shows them his everchanging `Kiez` around Rosenthaler Platz in Berlin - Mitte, and although he doesn’t really uses the word, ‘gentrification’ and his, slightly amused aversion towards it, can be seen as the main topic. He likes to remember them good ‘ol days, when the junkies were puking around his entrance, instead of the clean ‘New York Gallery’ he finds there now.

The stories gave me a bit the same feeling as Oliver Koletzki’s Großtadtmärchen. What big city? In the song ‘U-Bahn’ it seems the Berlin Underground is the most overcrowded, nasty one ever seen, whilst in fact I think it is one of the most spacious and empty subways of Europes big cities.

Nevertheless, as with Koletzki’s song, in the end it sounds pretty good. And once I took Sorge´s book out of the bathroom and into the park, I had a nice afternoon. And sure, everybody who is new to Mitte and it’s habits should read this nice little collection of ‘Berliner Kleingeschichten’. With the stories in Brunnenstraße 3 it is a bit like with the Döner und Currywurst ‘Buden’ - definitely returning topics! - You try a lot of different ones. They are all okay, but to some you don´t return, whilst others are, in all their simplicity, sensational experiences.

For more check out the website www.frank-sorge.de and www.eichborn.de

It’s not your average weekend-trip, but it sure is the way...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:24:00 +0200

It’s not your average weekend-trip, but it sure is the way to go around in Berlin. I Guess, if you’ve already been a while in the city, you might have visited the former Stasi-prison of Hohenschönhausen, and you’ve probably also been to Potsdam to see the wonderful Schloss Sanssouci with it’s incredible garden. But wait, there is more…

Next time you are looking for a leap into Berlin’s past, go to Potsdam and your first stop could be the infamous ‘Lindenhotel’ - as the locals call it - in the middle of the town. The former stasi-prison, now functioning as a political ‘Haus der Demokratie’, is more then worth paying a visit. This Impressive place was already build in early 18th century and overtime always served - trough it’s various illuster owners: prussians, nazis, soviets, Stasi - as a house of detention. Here you can find the strange sensation of walking freely within centuries of oppression & torture.

And if you’ve had enough of the less fairytalish past of Germany, it’s only a ten minute walk to Schloss Sanssouci. So: no worries…

Matthias Schweighöfer walking down the stairs @HBCberlin The on...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:48:00 +0200

Matthias Schweighöfer walking down the stairs @HBCberlin

The on forehand not too well received ‘kino-adaption’ of Wladimir Kaminer’s book ‘Russendisko’ celebrates it’s premiere in the cinemas around Germany today. Still I think I want to go. But I also still want to go to one of Kaminers’ infamous Russendisko nights in Kaffee Burger, as well as I still want to try to finally finish the entire - not too big - novel itself.

Anyhow. Last week I passed by the .HBC Club in the Karl-Liebknechtstrasse, as we got disrupted by a pretty big and excited crowd and a couple of spotlights pointed at the stairs towards the entrance. We waited and looked. A plain ordinary blond guy mastered to walk - in 3 shots - in a, for the director acceptable way, downstairs in the direction of the parked BMW in the street.

All of a sudden my friend (German) got as excited as the rest of the crowd. ‘But that is, that is Matthias Schweighöfer!’ he shouted. Some heads turned towards us and nodded in agreement. To me it was just the same symphathetic looking blond guy walking up and down the stairs, but no. There he was, the new Shooting Star Of German Cinema… and he was just in front of me. And, being Matthias Schweighöfer, the new star of German Cinema, of course he is the one playing Wladimir, the main character in Russendisko - Der Film.

Saxophone player in a passage of the Residenzschloss,...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:10:00 +0200

Saxophone player in a passage of the Residenzschloss, Dresden

Also in Dresden it was a sunny weekend. People were enjoying the weather alongside the Elbe and the Frauenkirche looked proud in here again brighter days. But in the hearts of the elderly people it seems to stay cloudy forever. Thoughts channeled into a ~~melancholy, backwards~~ vision: A never ending past.

Waiting for a bus around Hauptbahnhof, I asked an older woman for some information to get east.

“I don´t know, I never leave the city. I´ve lived here all my live. Which country are you from, you are not german are you?”

“The Netherlands.”

“And you live here?”

“No, I live in Berlin”

The lady hopped with amazingly souplesse next to me on the bench.

“Dresden was so beautiful. I don´t like Berlin too much. But here…”

She looked down. Her skin colored with autumn clouds. Here small nose was nearly totally covered with a towards black verging naevus.

A bus stopped on the platform.

“The war destroyed everything. I am 97 years old you know…”

“It was really a beautiful city….” she hurried to say, when she stood up and walked away. The spring sun was shining with the strength of summer, but for a little while it was as if autumn was never leaving again.

La raison pour mon blog

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:06:00 +0100

“Just another blog”. It´s what you read a lot. And yes there are a lot of blogs out there. I just stumbled upon my personal reason to start one. And why the title of this post in French? Well, it just sounds nice… The reason for my blog

There are lots of charming ways to describe time passing by. This note is one of them. I am at a Berlin Kebabshop. It is past 23.00 pm and outside it’s -10 C. Attached to the ceiling there is a television. In a bearer. An enormous clumsy bearer, made for the CRT television that used to be there. Now it just carries a flat-screen.

It is, as it is with this note: I write, using a lot of muffled words, whilst I could also have reached out for my smartphone to take a picture of this scene, and then directly - accompanied by a catchy caption - post it via my 3G connection onto my blog. It has become a note, with a lot of words.

Here you can find the clumsy bearer

Hermann Eicke & the 'Kippdampfdruckkannendream'

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:30:00 +0100

The Bar ‘Hermann Eicke’ at Brunnenstrasse 45 is a bar as they are in Berlin - Mitte. Clean, nice (especially the wall-paintings!) and in this case a no smoking area. Coffee is the focus. The machine to provide your daily black boost (no sugar) is just regular espressogear, the product okay. Food: healthy stuff. The quiche looked nice and tasted not too bad either, as well as the suggestion of salad on top.

The Dream of Hermann Eicke

Wondering who gave his name to this gently weeping coffeehouse, I asked the barista: friendly beard-and-beanie guy. This is the deal: Hermann Eicke was, according to his trustworthy eyes, the German inventor of one of the first coffee machines, the so called ‘Kippdampfdruckkanne’. The born Berliner pulled of his thing at the end of the 19th century.

The real stuff: Kippdampfdruckkanne (source: www.dhm.de)

So what? Well, at The Hermann Eicke bar, they are still convinced that his way of brewing coffee is the best one ever invented. So what? Well, despite off the ingenious construction the late Mr. Eicke developed, his method did not get too many followers after all.

Conclusion: not too many ‘Kippdampfdruckkannen’ ever saw the light of day, so they are, especially nowadays, really rare and hard to get. And that is exactly the problem the bar, named after it’s inventor, is facing. So I hereby want to reach out to everybody and ask for a little help to let nice beanie-beardman and the rest of the crew realize their dream and find an original Hermann Eicke Kippdampfdruckkanne. Yes, that´s it: KIPPDAMPFDRUCKKANNE. More info at www.hermanneicke.de (the bar).

lecamion: Marten Persiel - “This Ain’t California”

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:46:08 +0100

lecamion:

Marten Persiel - “This Ain’t California”

Industriebrache Johannisthal - Segelfliegerdamm: No Berlin...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:41:00 +0100

Industriebrache Johannisthal - Segelfliegerdamm: No Berlin weekend complete without exploring some abandoned industrial areas…

Just some friendly Polish (?) Hungarian (?) guys around a fireplace in the last building - ‘Gucken okay, no photo’ - Furthermore: empty space. Nice atmosphere, nice light, you name it…

@ehemaliges Flugfeld Johannisthal. You bike a bit around and all...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:20:17 +0100

@ehemaliges Flugfeld Johannisthal. You bike a bit around and all of a sudden you are in the middle of an open air party. Soundsystem, beer, Club Mate, everything!