My newspaper published a little article in the local section informing me that Tina would be invited to the opening ceremony of Peter Lindbergh�s exhibition "images of women" which presents 200 of his best black-and-white photos. Of course, as being misled by the media several times, I remained completely cool and finished my breakfast without any signs of getting turnerized - but just as long as I found myself next to my telephone and my computer. Looking at it in a more sober light, it was definitely clear for me to be in Dusseldorf the next friday because I only live 30 km away.

Immediately, just before I had to catch the bus to get to my university, I had a chat with the two answering-machines of two Tina-friends who live nearby one of which had also accompanied me to Munich last year to see Tina live in the course of the concerts of Eros. As they had already left for work they were compelled to wait till the evening as to be up to date. But it was quite sure that this news would fill them with enthusiasm. Right after my conversations with these polite and charming answering-machines, my interest focussed on the question how to get further and more detailed information concerning the special event on friday. After due consideration I decided to send an e-mail to a friend of mine who works part-time at the local TV-station so that he should try to find out all the answers to my questions beginning with "if, how, when" and all these curious conjunctions.

Thursday, 1999/07/29

The friend at the local TV-station supplied me with the phone-number which was necessary to find out that the opening-ceremony would begin at 18:00 o�clock and that you need an invitation. And as we are neither governement officials nor famous artists or rich business people.

I could not find any adequate possibilty apart from seeing Tina entering and leaving the building. Meanwhile, Ralf Hoehn had postponed his trip to the North Sea and Markus Deuter was insecure if he could reach Dusseldorf in time because he had to work at a trade fair in Cologne these days which lasts until Friday.

Friday, 1999/07/30

Dressed in business clothing and expecting heaven to perform some kind of a miracle, I met Ralf at Dusseldorf�s central station next to the underground stop. Unfortunately, the trade fair in Cologne would only end at 18:00 o�clock and it was, of course, impossible for Markus to reach Tina-city in time so he missed the whole event. Furthermore, he is a very new Tina-friend of ours and this day would have been a fantastic opener for our friendship and a perfect warming-up for the next tour. By underground we reached the "NRW Forum fuer Kultur und Wirtschaft" just about 17:45. Without any hesitation we crossed the street and the little park in front of the building observing the invited guests slipping through the entry before the critic eyes of the security staff. From a distance our eyes were attracted by a small group of people who were surely officially invited and looked as to serve as our own invitation. Sometimes, you have to be criminal in order to see Tina... We hardly had reached the steps when we merged into the luxurious group, climbed the stairs ... and entered the building!

To be honest, our hearts where pumping as if we had performed a world record in running, jumping and swimming in one time. But we tried to be professional and cautious: we behaved like the others, discussed the photos, were very quiet and, as being famous people and decided that no photo could impress us. First, - remembering how James Bond always handles similar situations - we disappeared into thin air that is we left the entrance hall, gazed at the five huge Tina photos at the beginning of the exhibition and hide in a corner of two walls which lay nearly at the other side of the hall. There we celebrated our incredible luck and could hardly remain as quiet as the other visitors because we were beside ourselves with joy. We had managed to be within the exhibition between - according to a newspaper the next Monday - "high-ranking representatives from politics, culture, sports and business" before it would be opened to the public the next day! Some secretaries of state, the mayor of the city, some of the models Peter Lindbergh had photographed and...

...and our Tina were to be seen. When we decided that the coast was clear, we left our hideout, passed again the fantastic Tina photos (all with her rubber boots except one portrait) and entered within the right moment the entrance hall where a group of camera-men and reporters followed a person with wild hair just about five meters away. Of course, we forget to be famous and honorable persons of the city and weaved our way through the crowd and came very close to Tina until she was led with Peter Lindbergh, a former secretary of state and Roger to a balcony which sorrounded the entrance hall. Therefore, we were able to observe Tina for nearly 20 minutes from a distance of just 7 metres. She wore a wonderful blue top and a pink skirt made from chiffon. As a real lady and in order to avoid the heat she had a brought a black fan with her which she used for herself and also for Peter Lindbergh until he took on and caused a real hurrican which let her hair flow. We were enthusiastic about this appearance on the balcony. And Tina, well, Tina has now changed completely to a real lady: elegant, charming, friendly and a fantastic stylistic sensitiy. The former female secretary of state next to her compared completely unfavourably with Tina on grounds of her boring and homely dress and her special fan: the advertisement brochure of the exhibition. Besides, this former secretary of state is 30 years younger...

During the three speeches that were made our attention was focussed without any interruption to Tina who smiled politely at every recommendation of her name and managed to look the whole time absolutely breathtaking although she could not have fancy the situation as all - rhetorically unprofessional - speeches were made in German.

We chased after anything in a skirt - as long as the skirt was pink and the woman was Tina. That means, that we followed, of course, Tina, Peter Lindbergh and the crowd of reporters to the silver Benz 100 metres away from the entrance at a special parking lot. The whole group, in the middle Tina, Peter and Roger, seemed like a swarm of bees on its flight to the next blossom due to the cameras, the bodyguards, the microphones and the fans. I managed to get into the inner circle around Tina - only half a metre away from her, and I can tell you, she looks absolutely brilliant and very young. For us, we could see no reason at all why she should brood over going on tour again or stay at her home and observe the ships on the Mediterranean Sea. Her new lady-like style is perfect for the next millennium!

Finally, the busy swarm of bees arrived at the silver Benz from Cologne which was parked directly next to a big street along the Rhine so that some drivers who became aware of Tina and all the cameras and people around her slowed down in order to catch a glimpse of her. After having said goodbye to Peter Lindbergh ("It was nice as always.") Tina hugged him and got into the limousine, the chauffeur slammed her door and then our queen disappeared waving us goodybye among the other vehicles.

Right after this incredible and exciting experience, we crossed "rolling on the river" the little park in front of the building and entered the Hofgarten (a big park in downtown Dusseldorf) in order to look for a free park bench for us to take a seat on and to relax a bit before we had to celebrate the successful evening in an ice-cream-parlour.