The Null Device

2007/5/21

Melbourne bedroom pop outfit The Motifs has a new CD out; titled "Away", it contains 25 songs, both old and new, and each undoubtedly a masterpiece of pocket-sized pop perfection. It's only available through a Japanese record label, who don't have an English-language order form. have just added an English-language ordering site. What are you waiting for?

(via M+N) indiepop music the motifs 2

The former Communist state of East Germany, which disappeared from Europe in 1990, still exists in the Caribbean; well, sort of. There is an unpopulated island off the coast of Cuba which Fidel Castro gave to East Germany in 1972, naming it "Cayo Ernesto Thaelmann", after a Communist politician executed by the Nazis. During the Communist era, it was apparently effectively East German territory; a Party-approved pop singer made a record there in 1975. It's not known how much the DDR used the island other than that, though by the time the Berlin Wall came down, it was apparently uninhabited, to the point where those negotiating the reunification treaty forgot it existed. This state of affairs continued until 2001, when a German newspaper discovered it and attempted to sell it, upon which, the Cubans, not wanting any more capitalist running-dog lackeys in their neighbourhood, swiftly declared that the transfer was "symbolic" only.

(via cos) anomaly communism cuba ddr geography geopolitics germany politics 1