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.
It is really hard to express what the atmosphere is like at this time of year in Berlin. On one hand, it's a giant party, with little-to-no rules, cheap alcohol & free music. It is also a serious time for political demonstrations and marches. It is also a huge draw for hooligans who come here each year for the rioting, car burning and window smashing. It is pretty exciting anyway. Last night, before the holiday today, Daniel and I sat outside and watched people streaming by looking for some kind of action. Regular folks mingled with drunk teenagers and bubblegum punks. Bottles seemed to fall from the sky occasionally and smash around us. You can't be certain that one won't hit you in the head by mistake. or on purpose. Odds are that one won't though and that's just the way it is.
Rather than show video of messy drunks and police barricaded U-Bahn stations which is also part of today, I took footage of the kick-ass party which goes down in Kreuzberg each year. It was really cool to experience. Even though tonight may end with some expensive cars burning and some bank windows smashed, the celebrations today are a great expression of how free, possibly the most free, life is here in Berlin. Any real democracy, by definition, should have some anarchy in it, shouldn't it?
The following video was taking this afternoon on Oranienstrasse in Kreuzberg-Berlin. We hooked up with some friends of Daniel's whom he met in Moscow at some point when studying there. 2 of them, Claudine & Adriane (i hope that's right) were really nice girls visiting Berlin from Quebec City, Canada. Cool eh?
Der Erste Mai
Stay Tuned For:
Aurele's Visit Part II (the photographic exposée!)
