The rock ‘n’ roll masseuse has spent three decades giving backstage rubdowns to bands like the Grateful Dead, the Ramones and the Rolling Stones, a gig that catapulted her to global tabloid fame. Arrived in West-Berlin when the Allies were still here, the infamous doctor has been Exberliner’s sex and relationship columnist since 2004.
Back in 2003, Nadja, editor of the Exberliner, interviewed me for a cover story for their magazine (Sep 2003). It was a big spread and I enjoyed it immensely (apart from the misquote they printed: “I would kiss the ground for them”, but I actually said “I would do kiss-a-grams for them”, as in, the British Army when they were in Berlin and before I could speak German, for work. Grrrrrr, loathe those sort of mistakes, but shit happens).
Shortly after, Nadja and I decided to take my love/sex/relationship blog and start running it in the Exberliner. Everyone, apart from “Dr. Schlong”, the mag’s music editor who had previously taken a stab at such a column, was pleased. He has hated me ever since. Proof of this was when he decided against using my personal snapshot of Dave (Depeche Mode) Gahan holding a brand new issue of the Exberliner in his hands, as Dave reads the mag every time he comes to Berlin. How on EARTH this picture was refused is beyond me. You cannot get better publicity for a magazine in Germany than a picture of Dave Gahan reading your mag. Dumb move. [D. Strauss was not involved in this decision. The editor in charge turned the photo down because it was too expensive.]
Anyways, enough bitching. I am grateful to Exberliner for standing by me every time the Red Cross tried to sue me for wearing a red cross in my tacky nurse costume and for getting my name and advice out there into the media world. This helped my column get picked up by many other newspapers and magazines, including the New York Post, Steppin’ Out and Penthouse Forum, to name a few. But out of all of them, the Exberliner gives me the most artistic freedom, never putting a muzzle on my finger tips, allowing me to be blunt, open and to curse like a sailor if I feel the need. (Can you BELIEVE Penthouse Forum put a kibosh on the Q&A that involved a man covering his balls in chocolate sauce to entice his dog to lick them whilst his fiancé was out partying? They said, “Canada will ban us for this sort of bestiality shit!”) So I thank you, Exberliner for being so liberal and informative. You are truly the heartbeat of English-speaking Berlin. (And now back to these saucy emails…)