New Photos on Picasa, Katherine flies and Køpi

First, let me announce that I've put a ton of new photos up on picasa from the last couple of weeks. Please check them out to see this rainy Berlin June.
So, Katherine's leaving for Berkeley tomorrow morning and its sort of a crazy milestone. I've been here over three months now and it feels pretty weird. Life here continues clipping along, although without a job, days tend to pass slowly sometimes. I'm still going to school at Babylonia most weekdays and I'm still helping out at dropping knowledge up in Prenzlauerberg. There's a chance, however slight that I'll be able to get some kind of paid internship (praktikum) with dk. If that were to happen it would extend my stay probably through the end of september. I'd be helping out on a project involving some university students from Salzburg, Austria. It's some of the same kids that were in Rostock with me, so that would be nice. We'd be documenting social activism in Berlin. Not sure about the structure, but it would be cool to work on something longer term than the G8 madness. Plus I think there's a lot of interesting activism happening in Berlin at the moment that deserves a wider audience.

Speaking of activism: Køpi (sorry for the bad translation) is a legendary autonomous hausprojekt on Koepenicker strasse here in Kreuzberg that's been under threat of eviction for, well, forever. But in the past few months its gotten pretty intense because someone with a lot of money bought the building when it went up for auction. 800.000 Euros may seem like a lot, but its really a bargain for the property. As an occupied building, the people there pay very little rent currrently and don't actually own the property. When first occupied, the value of property in the area was low and the building was in a state of disrepair. But today there's a brand new building going up right next door and Berlin's property values are creeping up.

A short history/description (for those who decided the badly translated wikipedia article wasn't worth reading): Køpi houses around 80 people and has been around since just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's facade is bombed out (scars from WW2) and covered in graffiti and huge banners. It also has 2 or 3 stages for shows, 4 or 5 bars scattered around different rooms, a film screening room in a drippy dank basement, a free foosball machine... Basically its amazing. Its kind of like the old factory that the Foot Clan partied at in first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

I went to Køpi last night with friends at 3am and stayed until perhaps 7, long after the sun had come up. Heaven is a Place on Earth never sounded so good. Cast of characters: Fellippo is my Italian friend from Babylonia who also lives in Kreuzberg. Sadly he's returning to Italy in a few weeks to start a music masters program. His friend Anna (from Venice) who also lives in Berlin came along with her boyfriend Emiliano from Argentina. Its funny, I do in fact know a few Americans, but its rare that I see them. I wonder what it'll be like to return to the Land of the Free and be surrounded by these people once again.

Well, if you're still reading congratulations. I'm sorry if this post is kind of mixed up. So, on to the activism: since there's a real threat to Køpi now of eviction there are regular solidarity protests all around Kreuzberg and greater Berlin. Their slogan? Køpi Bleibt! (Køpi Stays!) No one really knows what will happen. I'm sure there will be appeals and the process will take a while, but for now we can still have fun (in solidarity), TNMT style til 8 in the morning while the rest of Berlin sleeps... Well I suppose that's not true, everyone in Berlin parties until the late (early?), they just don't do it Køpi style.


(this is the view from my roof of the Fernsehertor (TV tower), Lausitzer Platz (where the church is) and the Spreewaldplatz Schwimmbad (lower right))

G8 '07 Roundup (Videos Posted, Karaoke Sung)

ROAD BLOCK
Uploaded by dropping_knowledge

The above video was the final piece I made in Rostock. I edited it in about a day or so...a day meaning at least 24 hours of work although at first glance it may not look like it. At the bottom of this post you'll find more links to videos I worked on as well as the general dropping knowledge G8 site.

The following post was begun at 5am on the 2nd monday of my 2 week stay in Rostock. It took a while to post. Entschuldigung:
So I'm on the night shift here in Rostock. The 1am-8am door watching is really a treat. Since we're bunkered here in the Schule we (meaning all 50 or so of us) have to watch the door all night to let in any of our member who's still out there on the cold summer nights. So cold here! It must be the estuary we're on. Ich habe keine ahnung. (I have no idea).
Tonight was kind of celebratory: we finally screened a bunch of finished films for the whole group and had a good meal of delicious indian food. By 12 everyone was raring to keep the mood up and by 1230, with a large gaggle of dropping knowledge people, I ventured out. The only problem was my previously engaged night watch shift with Esther from Salzburg. But visions of a group outing to the local karoake spot (Spoolchen Bar or something...?) led me astray.
Exiting the Rostock Technisches Kunstler Schule and turning left we meandered up the hill of our street and saw police blocking the way to the bar. Their on high alert now for anyone who looks like a member of the black bloc but we were able to easily convince them with our normal clothes and bar-going demeanor that we meant no trouble. We only meant party.
We were let in by a woman unlocking a glass door and relocking it behind us. High security. Even for karaoke! 3€ for coat check, entry and complimentary tequila shot is not a bad deal for such a smoking-hot karaoke bar. This place had it down. And they had it down right. I'll post pictures when I can but damn.
Disco square lights on the karaoke floor, a good song selection, cheap beer and a good crowd. Well the crowd was mainly 30 or so dropping knowledge folks, but there was also a nice smattering of American sailors (sans Popeye outfit) and cheery locals.
So you stroll up the marble stairs and in through the door you go and its just amazing. A Swedish girl with the camp who went by Katarina for her karaoke performances took over for most of the night with "summer of 69," "you're simply the best," among others and a german duet took care of "bohemian rhapsody" pretty handily. The Americans did "Welcome to the Jungle" and I got embarassed. One of their member kept doing really aggressive flying kicks while the others kind of waved and wobbled.
The worst part of the evening was during the Swede's rendition of "One More Time" by Britney Spears. The damn sailors kept yelling across the whole karaoke floor, "Hit me baby from behind!" whenever the chorus came on. It was lame.
Of course I planned to do a song, but only if they had "Motorin'" by Sister Christian. I had to do Gabe right and make sing song come to life in Germany. Sadly the KJ had no such song and I was forced to consider a rendition of "Ignition" by R Kelly. Sadly I wavered and couldn't bring myself to make that urinating man's flow over my new germanic friends.
The best part of the night was sharing some kraeuter lickor with a few new Salzburger friends. It was kind of like Jagermeister except I didn't feel the irresistible urge to vomit after drinking it. YUM!

I've now been back in Berlin for a few days and its good to get back to the relaxed life. No more working 12 or more hours a day or until 4 in the morning trying to perfect an edit. At least not for the next few weeks. Check out all the videos at: http://www.droppingknowledge.org/g8/videofilm
I know it looks like a lot of stuff, but most of them are really short and also pretty cool. Let me know if you want recommendations.

Videos I edited:



























I worked on translation and some editing nuance on a bunch of other clips up on the sight. Let me know which ones are your favorite. Comment here if you like!

Rostock or Bust!

I'm in Rostock, Germany right now. Its on the Baltic Sea. I'm dormed in the Rostock Technisches Kunstler Schule or something. It's the technical art school here in Rostock and its really old. The old, cloth military bed I've slept on the past few nights isn't getting any more comfortable, but at least I have space. At least 40 people cram into the open attic room on the school with an exposed, centuries old ceiling every night to get what sleep we can. It's called 'dropping knowledge summer camp' and I'm here to edit lots of video and make my way around Rostock once the action heats up. The G8 doesn't start the middle of next week but we're here early getting a grip on the situation and making as much media as we can. Pretty cool? Yes. Lots of kinks remaining? Yes.

www.droppingknowledge.com/g8

I'll start writing more once I'm back in Berlin on the 10th. I'm moving into a new apartment with 3 young deutsche folks and it should be fun.