I have been going through Berlin withdrawals in my 2 weeks back at home. I miss my friends, the city, the language. I have had time this week to put together a final video, not about anything in particular, for my friends back in Germany. The footage from my first party back here was sparse and dark so I made due with more iMovie effects and practiced my editing.
Kaku-Kaku-Kakuchang! is in honour mostly of Susumu who I miss a lot. He has promised me to come to Ottawa to Dj at one of my parties. I will do my best to make him stick to his word.
Kaku-Kaku-Kakuchang!
In closing, I miss you guys, I love you guys, I can't wait to see you all again. Obviously you all have an open invitation to come to Ottawa anytime you like, and a grateful host to show you around.
I have been procrastinating posting this, the last video from Berlin, but here it is. The final 1 week and a half were fantastic! I went to the world renown panorama bar a couple of times, watched a lot of football with Daniel, Daniel and Jurgen, and had a wow experience night at Dr. Pong with Caesar.
The most official goodbyes came at a going away party Daniel generously hosted with some of his fresh lasagna and leftover booze from the wedding party at the Ost-See. 9 of us fit into his cozy apartment and made a great night of it, which involved lots of alcohol sampling and waving goodbye. The video makes me sad when I watch it but the soundtrack doesn't help either, Jose Gonzales' treatment of the The Knife song "Heartbeats" chokes me up a little on its own. I tacked on some audio from the party of a goodbye song my drunken arm was twisted into playing on D's guitar very early in the morning.
Here is the video starring my friends:
Abel (Holland) Anna (Holland) Brendan (New Zealand) Daniel (Deutschland) Dirk (Deutschland) Ena (Japan) Rebekka (Deutschland) Susumu (Japan)
Going Away
I don't have time to give this blog the finishing touches I want to put on it, stay tuned for one last post featuring video from my home reunion party - tomorrow night - so my friends back home in Berlin can see my friends back home here in the O.
By the time the weekend was over I had stayed up both nights to see the sun rise, been to 2 beaches, watched one football game and played one football game, eaten 3 Fischbrotchen and met dozens of amazingly nice people. A lot of the 30 plus people made the comment of this being a perfect weekend, and it would be really difficult to argue with that opinion; food, wine, beer, music, dancing, lodgings, games, and even the weather, could not have been better. Daniel & Natascha's wedding ceremony was in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It was brief and friendly. This saved more time for the weekend getaway at the Ost-See.
At The Northern Coast of Germany I saw fields of poppies, lots of naked women at the beach, windmills, and the UNESCO designated heritage site: city of Wismar. If you read the history of Wismar at the given link, you will see that it was at one time under Swedish rule. This may be the region from where the name Espig comes from, my swedish last name with only German ancestry - but this is just a guess.
The video of the weekend features some snippets of time from the 3 days, sped up (naturally) and for the lack of a long enough mp3 to fit its 9 minutes, also features music from LCD Soundsystem yet again. So without furthe ado, thanks to Daniel and Natascha for taking care of all of our needs for the party, and sharing your friends and family with me! ***
*** I Recommend watching this video from the original you-tube link in full screen mode if possible as this embedded player plays it back slightly too darkly.
Lots of adventure and great times were had this past week, so much that I haven't had much time for the web log. But, this weekend should provide for a donkey-load (maybe the origin of ass-load? never thought of it that way...) of great video opportunities. Daniel and Natasha's wedding is all weekend long at his sister's place, which is a Commune on an island in the Baltic Sea. I am anticipating nude swimming, Russian Wodka fueled dancing and feats of strength, and observing the coming together of two very different cultures. I am also excited that I will be so close to Denmark and Sweden.
Since Poland, I have met a lot (more) really great people, including a really interesting woman from Ireland, who talked so quickly that I was hypnotized by her. I met her while attending friend Joao's grilin' fest at Treptower Park. It turns out she has big plans and dreams to set up an international exhibition based on a very original and provocative concept. Hopefully I will be involved in the design.
I also went to Daniel's bachelor party on Saturday which started with football at 6:00pm and ended at Karaoke at 6:00am. We had about 12 people crammed into the private room meant for 7 or 8 and trays of tequila kept floating in the door. There was a donkey-load of fist-pumping as I got to sing some German New Wave (NDW) which is always a treat, even for Germans.
here are some random pictures from friends and a link to Abel's Slide show from Karneval Der Kulturen to help tide the blog over until I get back from the north...
For Abel's amazing Karneval Der Kulture Pics click here
My first and only trip out of Berlin (so far that is, there is Daniel's wedding at the Ost See to go to and maybe a trip to Prague in the works) was to the Polish border yesterday. The "beautiful weekend" ticket allows 5 adults to unlimited train travel during one complete day. The price of the ticket - 28 Euros - not each, total!!! After doing the math, that meant Daniel, Anna, Abel, Ena and I could get to Poland and back for 5,60 euro! ( ~$8 CAD).
We had a fantastic day together, taking the train to Frankfurt (Oder) which is not the big Frankfurt but another one on the River Oder. On the other side of the river is Poland, which we walked across a bridge, and past the abandoned passport control checkpoint, to get to. The Polish side of the river had a surprisingly small amount of residents many who did not speak any German, or English, or were not able to give change in Euros. The city felt half empty on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon.
The best part of the day we spent in a fantastic park on the German side and lunched in private by the water. The running (haha) joke was Daniels allergy to Polen. The video turned out to be a pretty good document of what our day was like as interpreted by the guy who directed The Monkees. Abel took alot of the video and I was happy to see that he enjoyed it so much, I am sure he will pick up a cheap digital video camera soon.
Ena, a classmate of mine in German school, is from Tokyo, is stunningly beautiful, and has a shared interest in Berlin history, particularly the Berlin Wall. She is so nice that she did not even mind when I got us lost 3 times, while showing her the S-bahn home, because I was completley distracted by her.
I have been trying to get to Martin-Gropius Bau (designed & built by Walter Gropius's great-unkle Matin) since I came here. It is reputed to be Berlin's best and best looking exhibit space. The Dani Karavan exhibit looked really cool on the poster so I thought I would ask Ena to go with me before our road trip to Poland (we just got back). Happily she wanted to come too. After class on Friday we went out for some Thai food then headed to the museum.
On the way there we walked past the remaining portion of The Wall, still standing as it was, on Zimmerstrasse. The Topography of Terror outdoor exhibit looked excellent and I will have to revisit it before I leave. I was only able to take some video of Dani Karavan's installation of the upside down tree and the miniature oasis, the exhibit was, understandably closed to photography. So what I wound up with from the day was some video of Ena and I getting to the museum and after, walking past a Trabant rental agency and to the historic Cafe Adler at Checkpoint Charlie. Ena had been wanting to check it out. I took this opportunity to introduce Ena to Schneider Hefe-Weissen and documented that historic occasion as well.
So this video, which was originally going to focus on the Dani Karavan exhibit, now documents my new friend Ena.
Last night was the Spectrum/Sonic Boom show at the small-but-rocking Bang Bang Club, found under the S-bahn at Hackesher Markt. Anyone who knows me really well knows of my love of all things Spacemen 3 which last year prompted me to book Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) for a DJ stint at Zaphod's in Ottawa. Meeting Pete, one of my musical idols, and hanging out with him at my place after the show was a really amazing experience for me. What made it even better was that Pete is also a really nice easy going guy and we spent the night, into the morning, listening to records and smoking pot. I have described this as possibly the best night of my life. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to seeing the show and saying hi to Pete again. Considering how often and how far Sonic tours I really didn't have any expectations that he would even remember me.
After the solo show, which was preceeded by the fantastic electro-acoustic shoegaze sounds of MINIT , and the DJing of legendary guitarist and Berlin citizen Tim Gane of Stereolab, I waited for Pete to finish packing up and approached him after a lull in the endless well-wishing of other fans. I went on-stage and extended my hand, introducing myself on the assumption that he had no idea who I was. Pete greeted me with a grin and even though he was pissed off that someone had swiped his irreplaceable matrix of sequencer and synth settings for his set, seemed genuinely happy to see me again. I had just told Susumu I was going up to say hi and we were going to leave right after. So I told Pete I was on my way out, that the show was great and I was glad I had the chance to see him in Berlin. Pete didn't really have time to talk on stage so asked if I wanted to go downstairs with him to the green room for a drink.
"Yeah, sure" I said, as if this wasn't some incredible realization of a fantasy I have had for the past 15 years. I went and got Susumu aka "Kuka-chan" and we followed Pete into the basement where we helped ourself to a free rockstar beer.
This was an odd situation as the 10 or so people in the basement mostly consisted of other like-minded Spacemen 3 fans wanting to hang with Sonic Boom. I had several advantages however. I had no agenda to promote my own career, I had met Pete before and we had catching up to do, I wasn't a drunk groupie, and I speak English pretty well. Pete talked politely to the room, but he talked to me like an old friend. He remembered Ottawa, that it snowed when he was there, that my roommate had an ill-behaved Husky. he even told me that his time there was also special memory for him, or as he put it in his Rugby accent "I go to a lot of places."
The room was filled with hash and pot smoke, we finished off the case of beer as we talked about his woes on the road, Bauhaus in Berlin, looked at his gear. I got to see the first copy of the yet to be released Spectrum album recorded in Memphis. Pete treated me like an old friend, and I felt like the cool kid in the room as everyone suspiciously looked at me trying to figure out if I was famous or not. I just acted nonchalantly kept talking about gigs and records with Pete and let them keep wondering.
The groupie and the young manager of the band Singapore Sling who was also hanging around, were trying to show off to each other as to who could score some cocaine. It was 3:30 am at this point and everyone was going to go to 8mm bar. I decided to call it a night as the drunk groupie was being very gauche and I didn't look forward to the others company and enduring their posturing. I, unbelievably, turned down Pete's invitation to go with them. He smiled and suggested that he wasn't looking forward to where the night was headed. I asked him if he had his lodgings sorted out, of course he did, he seems extremely well organized when on tour. He shook my hand good-bye, and then pulled me in for a hug instead. We told each other how great it was to see each other again and looked forward to the next time. On my way out I stopped by Tim Gane at the Dj booth to shake his hand and thank him for the music, which was outstanding.
I decided against the taking the bus home and walked instead. The night would last longer that way.
The following video is an excellent document of the current spectrum tour, although not in Berlin, look and sound was the same. I left my camera and bag a home as shows here tend to be very crowded and hot.
Yesterday was long. I worked from 9:30 until 6:00. Met up with Daniel & Natasha and some of their other friends at Karneval Der Kulturen (A multicultural weekend long celebration) street party. Then Davide from Milan who I met at German school this week, joined us. He and I eventually found ourselves at White Trash to listen to some late 70s punk downstairs, and 20s big band upstairs.
Today, I also met up with Ena, another fellow student. We are planning a day-train-trip to Poland for next Saturday. Its only 100 kilometers away.
So, Karneval der Kulturen is this weekend, and I have to work a lot of work to make Euros for beer and a new bag. Therefore, pictures will do most of the talking in this post. I am grateful that so many people other than myself took photos because my camera was mostly at home. Anna, Aurèle and Daniel kindly sent me some video & pics and here are some of my favourites...
Firstly, Daniels' Anticipated Video Debut...
The Beer Inside Of Us All
Shot in the innovative Beer POV style, this video very effectively make its point, that beer is inside of us all...and on the outside of some of us as well.
Photorgyphy am Gorki-Park
Aletta, Anna, and Lilian, all from Holland, joined Aurele, Daniel and I one night at Gorki Park. We did alot of other stuff together too, like; ate another Southern German meal, went to the Mauer Markt and the Schloss Charlottenburg. After a few beers and green teas we had a great time taking pictures of each other as we exchanged phone numbers. I think, but am not sure, that this is also the night that Daniel, Aurele, and I went to Keyser Soze bar for a nightcap before going to sleep. The bartender told us we had time for one beer, 30 minutes. We thanked him and sat down at the bar. By the time we left we had not only our beer, but 2 other free beers and a shot of vodka each. It was now about 4:30 am and we had chatted with the bartenders for a couple of hours. It's a really nice friendly spot, which can be tricky to find here (the friendliness that is). Total price for the 9 beers and 3 Grasovka vodkas - 15 euro!!
Slideshows aren't what they used to be.
Even when you had to buy special film, get them processed, buy and set up projectors and screens, and make pop-corn, slideshows never got any respect. You had to invite people over for dinner then ambush them with pictures. These days slideshows are a great shortcut to link to Flickr accounts and thereby avoiding laying out pictures in Blogger's stupid interface.
What you will see in the slideshow are mostly potraits and snapshots from: Club Des Visionaires, Volkspark Biergarten, Holocaust Memorial. I did add some other of my favourites as well, chosen from the photos Aurele sent me.
click to start
Coming Soon:
15.Mai; Sepctrum show at The Bang Bang Club w/ new pal Susumu.
