One of the oddest places I have stumbled across on my travels must surely be Papa Joe's Biersalon in Cologne. Just a stone's throw from the cathedral, one might be tempted to avoid a place that so loudly screams 'tourist trap', but there are, I believe, a number of reasons why this would be a mistake. Firstly, it is almost always completely empty of any tourists (and practically anybody else); secondly, it plays host to a large collection of mechanical automata (and readers of this will already know that I am a fan of such things). But tucked amongst the pianolas and Victorian coin-operated peep shows, is evidently the pride of their collection, these two curious fellows ...
Tunnes und Schaal, for these are their names, are examples of "pneuphoniker", the world's first fully automated - and fully acoustic - accordion and sousaphone duo. Powered by a vacuum cleaner motor and ten MIDI microprocessor, the duo can play a wide repertoire of traditional polkas, mazurkas, and waltzes, plus such popular favourites as La Bamba, Billie Jean and Black Magic Woman. There is definitely something peculiarly uncanny about these two animated marionettes that seems to attract and repel in equal measures, part of which, I think, has to do with the way the one on the left seems to keep looking right at you, his eyes following you around the room like a painted portrait in a ghost story ...
