American Wolf in Berlin

Großer Müggelsee und me

2009-08-29T12:44:00.004+01:00

Heading here today for the second time in as many weeks. it's my new favorite spot to swim in Berlin. It's kind of a long bike ride, but you get a pretty sweet reward at the end. Plus the ride is great, rambling through Treptower Park, Alt Koepenick and the Salvador Allende Viertel I and II. Ah, cold war sympathies with deposed Chileans. It's a beautiful thing.

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Update: Just got home. What a trip. We got caught in the rain on the way back, but it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately I was wearing my flipflops that get super slippery in the rain. But yeah, good time in general; I met Easton's girlfriend Annette and their studio sharing furniture designing friend Marvin. Not named after the Martian unfortunately. We checked out this scary abandoned building occupied by some Black Bloc folks.

Dog Days of August

2009-08-21T15:09:00.005+01:00

So the lady is away in Washington, DC for a month. Its been about a week so far that's she has been away and its definitely different.
Last night I went to play games in Volkspark Schoeneberg with some friends that I've met through her over the past year or two. Its a bit of a trip from my 'hood and it stands in the shadows the Rathaus Schoneberg, where Kennedy gave his 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech.
The ride was complicated. Berlin is so big and I've been holing up in my little corner of Kreuzberg for most of the summer so far. That makes it tough to navigate myself toward other parts of the city.
In the end I made it there alright, but the sun was already disappearing behind buildings and trees. It's sad to see the summer days getting shorter again. Well, not sad, because it has to happen and I'm used to it happening every year. Its just somehow a shock. One gets so used to the evenings running on forever that being in a park until 10 with the sky still bright becomes a normal thing.
Alas as we made it to the end of our first game of Carcassonne (named after this city in France) we had to use a bike headlight to illuminate things. Christopher had bought some delicious looking pizza - and lots of it - from a place called Dolce right around the corner. It looked great and I was hungry and would have eaten it but for the fact that it was covered in white flecked slices of cured meat. Not the first meat I would choose to dive into after almost 9 years of vegetarianism.
After a trip to Moritz's apartment for a rather frustrating game of Ligretto (I did terribly and was struck with extreme hiccups throughout), I got new directions and happily made my way back to good ol' Kreuzberg.
On Bergmannstraße, I hear my name called 'a-Wolf-a.' I recognized that voice for the only person it could be long to, Lorenzo from sprachschule. He's a very interesting fellow - an academic teaching and studying comparative literature. His English is mildly broken, yet sometiems I feel he's more lucid and communicative than I am. It's an odd thing to realize.
I stayed out with Lorenzo and Ana Maria for another hour or two at Melitta Sundstrom on Mehringdamm.
We spoke of naivete and cynicism and Franco and Berlusconi and Barack Obama and landing on the Moon. All in all a very gratifying set of subjects for a Spaniard an Italian and an American to discuss at 2am on a weekday.
Now its Friday and who's knows what will happen tonight.

Settling in (but sadly no Settlers)

2009-07-22T18:24:00.003+01:00

Sorry its been a while since my last post. I guess I'm just a procrastinator. Big surprise.

So I've been here for about 2 weeks now and things are really getting going.

No Settlers of Catan yet, but I'm working on it. I met some German guys who own the game and we almost actually got a game going, but it turned out that Werde Bremen was playing that same night in the SuperCup. LAME! Oh well...hopefully soon it'll happen.

I'm all registered for German language classes and as of Monday I've officially begun. I'm taking classes at a place called Sprachpunkt PSP. I'm not sure if there's any relation to the Playstation handheld thing, but so far I've found no evidence of any connection. Somehow I managed to make it to level A.2 despite not really ever taking a proper german class.

I'm surprised by how easy its coming to me. Not that its an easy language, but I'm really feeling comfortable with German and moving on to new and harder challenges with the language. Lately, and before as well, my main issue is around Dativ, Akkusativ and whatnot. Can't wait until we get to more tenses. Good grief.

I've been playing soccer, or fußball Sundays in Treptower Park and meeting some really nice people. There's a basketball court right next door with really funny hoops that are sort of disorienting when you're first shooting on them. I bought a basketball at Boxhagen Platz Flohkmarkt my first weekend here. I went to play next door last week just as school was getting out and all these young kids kept walking up and asking to take a shot. Let me tell you they're not all as good as Dirk Novitski. This guy from Martinique, Tidjan, also joined for a while, but it seems my dreams of being a relatively elite basketball player here in Berlin will come true. Yes!

Its nice to have homework again and also feel occupied while here. I even ordered business cards with my German cell number. All very exciting. I'm even on the verge of joining an amateur softball team. There's a pretty chill game here on saturday. I'll probably go check it out. Its pretty far from our place on Urbanstraße, but with the bike I found today it shouldnt be so hard. Sorry for no pictures, we've been reogranizing and I lost the cable (for the time being) that connects my camera to the computer. Pictures coming!

First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

2009-06-25T07:44:00.001+01:00

My mom just sent me this link. It kind of represents all that I hate about 80s Leonard Cohen, but it's also kind of awesome. Or at least fitting in a very literal way...
Check it out!

Prospect Park

2009-06-22T04:14:00.004+01:00

Today Kunji and I met her friends Michael and Helene at a great brunch cafe called Cheryl's Global Soul on Underhill Street near Prospect Park. Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Public Library were around the corner and really impressive. It was like the WPA and New Deal coming to life.

Helene is from Denmark and has a fascination with both Berlin (where she spent some time in the 80s) and Portland (to which she has never been). Naturally we got along great. Plus they've got a very cute little blonde boy named Turner. She was speaking Danish on and off through the day and it sounded like Swedish-German. Very odd.

After brunch we met Alice, Boden, Manny and Emily for a walk to a playground in the middle of Prospect Park. It was a play date for the kids, but also for the adults. We definitely outnumbered the babies and could've taken them down easily. Instead we let them play peacefully with sandboxes and slides. What a nice group of fogies we are.

At one point we were cowering under a play structure to stay out of the rain when this baby pushed right by me to the slide. Ah, New Yorkers. I guess they are born that way.

It was nice to see Boden and Kunji hanging out. Glad that we could get together as a family here.
Later we went with Michael and Helene to a bar called Commonwealth on 5th Ave. & 12th St. It had been raining all day, but luckily their back patio had a huge umbrella. When the downpour started again we were protected.

Kunji and I finished up the night with grocery shopping trip to get ingredients for the Potato Leek Soup that I really like to make. Normally you wouldn't really want that in the summer, but it's such bizarre weather that it was perfect. The kitchen in her apartment is really cozy and the soup turned out delicioussss.

Now I'm blogging, or finished blogging and Kunji is hand-stamping business cards.

Sweet.

I think tomorrow I'll head into Manhattan for a few hours. First time since the 2004 Republican Convention.

Maybe I'll buy a camera first to spare you the grainy photos.

East Coast Romp '09 Begins

2009-06-21T05:29:00.008+01:00

I've left Portland.

After an epic day of BBQ and fire-fueled dance partying it was time to go. Gabe drove me. I barely made the plane - not his fault, I swear.

This morning at 6:20 a.m. I landed at JFK with Alice and Boden.

I barely slept. Spent most of the flight channel surfing between La Liga soccer on GOLTV and a History channel special on the world without humans. I'm not sure which was better, but it made for great flicking back and forth. Also saw some wonderful infomercials.

Boden fell right to sleep after we got to altitude and only his randomly kicking my leg or knocking my headphone cord loose reminded me that he was squirreling around on Alice's lap.
Generally it was a great flight.

Once we landed we waited for our luggage and Boden tried to chase the small birds that have made a home inside the baggage claim area of JFK. Sometimes he would see them before I and go running off after word yelling "Bird! Bird?"

My bags are heavy. I'm not quite sure how heavy because the woman at the JetBlue desk in Portland didn't even bother weighing them in, but lugging these two bags plus my huge backpack through JFK and then through NYC mass transit and finally to Kunji's third floor apartment took its toll.

The area around 5th Ave and Degraw here in Brooklyn is a big leap from Portland. Lots more tire rim shops and gas stations. After hanging in the kitchen and decompressing, I ended up taking a much needed nap. I'd been kind of buzzing from the long trek to Kunji's abode, but a guy's gotta sleep.

I woke up to talk to C as she opened my birthday package that had finally arrived in Berlin. Finally! We also talked about her prospects for housing in DC later this summer - looking good.

At 3, Kunji and I met up with Tara, her roommate Daisy, and her boyfriend Tim. We had coffee. We looked at a potential apartment at 7th Ave and Garfield. We booked it the hell out of that bizarro place and had a beer at the Park Slope Ale House.

Eventually we headed back in at Tara's for a little board game action. As we began I noticed Mr. Alex on Gchat. We spoke a bit and it turned out that Todd, Jarratt and he were about to play some Settlers of Catan. Sounds like fun guys. Wish I could be there, but oh well, I've got a new game for ya. It's called: Pimp City. You pick the prostitute figurine that most represents you, then walk around the board, in very Monopoly-like fashion (there's even fake money), until a. everyone gets bored playing truth or dare, b. enough whores run out of money that one comes out the winner or c. you decide it'd be more fun to sit out back in the rain and finish Tara's brand new bottle of Lovejoy Vodka from Portland.

We settled on c. Pimp City ain't got nothin' on Settlers.

Tara and I took a walk around the block for beer at one point, coming back with some vegan popcorn and a bottle of Radeberger for me along with a bottle of Krusovice for Tim. Awesome. Radeberger is somehow about the same price in Brooklyn as in a Berlin Spaetkauf (bodega). Crazy. Eventually the umbrellas came out so we all sat around the table with them perched on our shoulders discussing things like gnosticism and why Tim had this certain kind of tobacco pipe.

Eventually Kunji and I headed back to Park Slope where we met up with Allen at the Union Hall to catch the end of a set by The Loom (picture). Turns out that their horn player went to Oberlin with me. I thought she looked familiar. They're playing another show on the Lower East Side on Friday night. Maybe I'll go.

For now I'm jetlagged and it's way past my bedtime.

Hello NYC.

Journey to Wrangelkiez

2009-01-16T07:17:00.002+01:00

reexploring Kreuzberg in wintertime. me likey.

From Januar im Berlin 09

Landed

2009-01-14T10:32:00.002+01:00

I'm here! More photos soon

From Januar im Berlin 09

Back in Portland

2008-08-08T18:10:00.001+01:00

So its been almost a week since I touched back down in Portland. It was warm at first, but now its getting into an odd 'cold lots of the day then long stretch of incredible heat' phase.

Berlin finished up pretty well. There were all the trips and beers and restaurants and days in the park and videos edited. The highlight of the last week or so was going to an outdoor screening of a silent film shot in India in 1929 and directed by a Franz Osten. Its called A Throw of Dice and the film group has live accompanying music instead of what would surely be a cheesy piano track on the DVD. Apparently it and others of his films had a big impact on what would become Bollywood cinema. He stopped making films there when he was arrested by the British on the eve of WWII.

Oh, and yeah some lame politician named Obama, er, Alabama, er, something came and I shot some video with C's help. Hopefully soon it'll be cut for your perusal.
There are some new berlin photos up on my picasa page if you care to dally over in that direction.

I'm back and I'm back in business. Trying to find some new clients to work with and also setting up C with a bit of a life here for the next 2.5 months. We finally got her a cell phone. Seems like ATnT's pay as you go deal works out best - but we'll see how the service is.

Its been fun reconnecting with people. I like returning to Portland - all the friendly faces and the feeling that there's time to be caught up on. And unlike last year when I missed the whole summer, this year I've got the whole of August at my beck and call.

Last night we went to a Portland Timbers game and I think C was pretty impressed with how we do 'fussball' on this side of the ocean. Plus our two-chainsaw wielding mascot could just run onto the pitch and even the teams with a little surgery should the Timbers ever have occasion to play the German National side. I'm sure the Timbers Army would like that.
Oh, and it was thirsty thursday! 2$ beer at a sporting event? God is great.

Beach House im Berlin

2008-06-11T09:26:00.006+01:00

Last Thursday C had plans to watch the season finale of Germany's next top model and I decided I would do something...fun...instead and let her have girls night out. So I paged through Zitty (Berlin's awesome biweekly cityguide) and randomly there in the corner was a photo advertising a Fleet Foxes/Beach House show at Cafe Zapata.

I first heard of Beach House in March when I was randomly paging through another magazine...I forget the name...that H had brought along for our trip to Honduras. As I read the review I recognized the name Alex Scally and by the time we'd returned from the sun, seas and ruins of Honduras I was excited to hear them. J picked us up from the airport and had some of their songs on a mix and even at first listen I was really impressed. Alex and I went to college together not too many years ago and I was curious to hear what about their sound made the band popular at this moment.

Since April when I first heard Devotion their new album, I've been listening to it on almost constant rotation, especially on long rainy nights in Portland.

So C disappeared for Heidi Klum land and I rode the U-bahn to Oranienburger Tor in the heart of the Red Light district. 15 Euros is a lot of dollars, but I was willing to pay and grabbed a Becks from the bar before walking to within 3 feet of the stage. Soon Beach House was on and it was stunningly beautiful. They held the crowds attention with voice guitar and beat. I took a few photos along with the rest of the fashionable crowd and wondered if I'd get a chance to talk to Alex.

As the Fleet Foxes set (the headliners...also really good from 5 feet away) came to a close I started walking out and randomly bumped into Alex.

"Hey, we went to school together, you went to Oberlin right?"
"yeah, I remember a lot of faces from Oberlin."
"I guess you didn't go to the reunion..."
"no...on tour...but wow, its been four years."
"still see many people from school?"
"no, not many, I moved to Baltimore and most others moved to NY or SF"
"Yeah...same here, I'm in Portland and no one went there...but I see Toby in Seattle sometimes."
"Yeah, me too whenever I go there."
"And Tom?"
"And Tom."
Awkwardly we watched the final bits of Fleet Foxes' encore and I asked how long he was in Berlin.
"Just tonight, then Utrecht tomorrow."
"Well, alright, have fun. You guys were amazing. Good to see you."

And I stumbled out of the Cafe slowly strolling to Oranienburger Tor. I tried to reconstruct the conversation and realized that I in fact had not said "you guys were amazing." I'm not sure if I even complimented him, but I guess he knew, I was at the show...Trying to reconstruct the conversation is hard...the pauses and blaring acoustic guitar and fire breathing dragon hanging over the bar made for a glitchy conversation. Four years ago we walked across the same stage in Philipps Gymnasium in rural Ohio and here we were stumbling through conversation in a bombed out art-house in central Berlin.

Beach House opened for Cat Power in London a few nights later.

Back in the GDR

2008-06-02T15:15:00.003+01:00

From Back In Berlin

I'm back. I left here on September 10th 2007 and now on May 30th 2008 I'm finally back. I settled right back in to Portland this fall and spring and got everything into order. But it's weird: after all that time, it somehow feels like I never left. The warm weather and sun I encountered after getting through the very relaxed customs at the airport felt just the same as it had last year when I left. Its as though I wintered in Portland's rainforest and blacktop only to return to the arid sun and cobblestones of Berlin.

It feels dreamy. I remember my way around these familiar streets pretty well, the canal looks the same with swans floating by and people and bikes whirling past. There's still good ice cream and buskers here and there plying their trade near Admiralsbruecke. The parks are so vast that you forget you're in the city and naps come easily. C's apartment is still a mix of white walls and tan wood. Invariably I always think we're at the apartment door, but no...just one more flight to go.
Of course I've brought Portland along with me this time. I've got my same old phone (which I unlocked and switched out sim cards with my old crappy Berlin phone). And work is here as well. Now that the internet's up and running its time to download more footage of high schoolers running and throwing things. And I wonder what these sunny days will bring in Portland. I'm sure fires in H's yard, croquet, horse and lava monster in that small park that no one ever seems to name (Dawson) and midnight rides from bar to bar to party. But for now its time to kick back in Kreuzberg, enjoy parks, falafel, pizza, beer and slow walks on quietly bustling streets.
The European Cup starts on Saturday and I plan on watching as many games as possible. The Germans seem to be down on this year's team, but it will be fun to watch World Cup caliber football with lots of avid fans.
I've put some of the first photos up on Picasa if you'd like to take a look. And I promise to post regularly on the blog.

home!

2007-10-24T10:03:00.000+01:00

Sorry it's been so long. I guess I've been focused on getting back into the groove of things here in Portland and also just too lazy to write anything. I'm staying with some good friends at the moment (on the floor) and back to washing dishes at a cafe I worked at long ago (J+M).
In other news however, Todd and I finally got around to getting a house to live in and its right around the corner from a really cool neighborhood in North Portland. We're moving in with a girl we just met through craigslist but she seems really nice and we're sure it will all work out. Plus the landlord's giving us the rest of this month free of rent to give us time to move in. So yes! Catastrophe averted. Now when C comes I will actually have a house that I pay rent in and call my own instead of a floor mattress at a friends house. It has been nice living with these guys though. Endless hours of video gaming and donut sharing have really brought back a lot of memories and got me excited to be back in Portland. That, plus the weather has finally turned around a little bit - at least for now.
How is Berlin? I wonder. It's been a while since we parted. Hopefully not too long before we meet again.

New Joke

2007-09-11T14:03:00.000+01:00

So a guy flies home from Berlin.

Guy walks into a bar. Goes to the bartender to ask for a beer.

Guy gets asked for his ID.

Guy experiences culture shock.

Guy is home.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

2007-09-09T18:10:00.000+01:00

Ok, maybe not the most poetic title, but it's got a little bit of meaning I suppose. For some.

I'm at Christina's apartment now. Packing up my things and getting ready to be on a United Airlines plane in about 9 hours.

And then sometime soon I'll be touching down in Portland. My time in Berlin is drawing to a close. In this bizarre manner. Time this past month has just flown by at such a pace that its really indescribable. But of course time has a way of doing that. And summer time has a way of doing that. And having the time of your life in a far away place during the summer and saying goodbye really has a way of doing that.

I'll be coming back someday for sure - who knows when or for how long. This city has begun to feel like home and I'll have to see it again.

For now its back to my other home: Portland. I can't wait to see my friends and the newest member of the family. Mount Tabor and St. Helens and Hood on the horizon will be a sight for sore eyes. Christina told me she almost cried seeing the TV Tower when she was flying back to Berlin last night. Who knows what circling around the Willamette or seeing Mt. Hood will be like. I'm excited.

I suppose I'll keep posting on this blog. Maybe I'll have to alter the title just a little bit, but why give up now?

Flight Patterns and Color Corrections

2007-08-24T14:50:00.000+01:00

I guess no one really reads this blog anymore (my fault! no updates in over a month!) But here goes with the latest news from the B to the Erlin.

I was supposed to come back stateside on July 31st. That would have been in time to see Gabe and Koali off on there Honduran teaching adventure and see Alice near the bursting point with my little as-yet-unnamed godson. With theknowledgist leaving this fall as well, there were plenty of reasons to come home. But it just didn't feel like time yet I suppose.

Currently I've got a ticket for September 10th. Thankfully, STA, the Student Travel Agency has pretty friendly ticket change policies. I can extend my ticket for up to a year from my the first leg of my trip's commencement. So that means I could push it all the way back to March 12, 2008. And at the moment I have a student visa that's valid until mid-March as well. Things could work out so that I stay here that long. You might be curious about how I can stay for so long without working. I haven't had a real job since January 21st and I haven't worked one bit here in Deutschland - that is until the past few weeks.

Biking on Skalitzer Strasse to meet a friendly German production manager about digitizing some footage for a personal project of hers, I ran into my friend Samara. She's Canadian and we bonded in Rostock because we both really like Sarah Polly.
Samara also edited the pink balloon protest video that I've linked to. So, long story short, Samara had was working as production assistant on a just-wrapped American feature film shoot. And here I entered, ostensibly to save the day and edit it on a super low budget.

I've basically finished the teaser for the film through these last 2 weeks with the writer/director/producer at my side. Good times. I'll post it here as soon as it finished and web viewable.

She just left and things are up in the air at the moment. It seems like she wants this other dude, Xavier, to edit it because he's based in Berlin permanently and has access to some color correction and other facilities through connections that I just don't have here. So that's lame. But perhaps he's a better fit to finish the film. The Berlinale submission date is the end of October, but the filmmaker wants to continue making edits and changes up until the mid-February Berlinale kick-off. Initially I felt like sticking around until the end of October was a stretch, but a stretch I was willing to make. But February? A winter in Berlin? I'm not sure I can commit to staying here that long, especially with the relatively small amount of money she can pony up.

So...what do I do? Stick around, push through the money problems and finish this movie? Or go back to Portland, regroup and get my post-production on there?

Granted, the question is more complicated than mere money and work issues, but that's the only laundry I'm willing to air in this forum...

Videos up on YouTube.

2007-07-15T12:46:00.000+01:00

More to come! Including a world premier video for Winstons. Check out my YouTube Channel.

Oh man! Its been a while. I know. Here are some things.

2007-07-15T09:20:00.000+01:00

So...quick life update:

I currently have sweet german health insurance. As a language student I was able to get pretty cheap health insurance from this student insurance company. For only 43 Euros a month I get to experience the joys of health care in my non-native tongue. Of course I've only really been to the ear doctor - but man was it sweet! Sometime on the train to Rostock in late May my left ear just stopped working. It sounded like I had a finger in it. By the time I got back Rostock I was used to always attempting to direct people's voices into my right ear so I wouldn't seem like a complete idiot. Imagine both barely knowing the language and barely being able to hear! Sweet combo. The ear doctor fixed it with a really sort of scary looking set of tools. He spoke passable English, but his nurse was in the office the whole time as well for any words we couldn't figure out just the two of us. His tools all looked like dentistry tools. Sort of scary, but he had a light, German touch and it turned out I just had an insanely huge wax buildup in my ear that he easily took care of.
To hear in 3D once again, to feel the sonic fullness of my voice and everything around me was pretty great. I hopped on my bike and everything was almost too loud. But I did feel a lot safer.

Also, Gabe and his sister Tasha visited at the end of June. They stayed for a week in my extra room. Yes, that's right. For the low, low price of 200 Euros/month I have two rooms, each with its own bed. Of course both rooms aren't too huge, but its pretty nice to have that space. I believe Todd, my friend from Portland will be grabbing one of those rooms in the not too distant future for a few nights (if he ever gets back to me about his arrival date).
So they visited and we really did up the town. I became tour guide (Reisefuehrer) for the week and we saw most of the sights in Berlin...well, a lot of the sights. It was raining all week (as it has been for the last month at least), but we had Bahn passes, so managed to stay relatively dry. The coolest part was finally going up in the Fernsehturn (TV tower) in Alexanderplatz. I'd been waiting for a touristy friend to visit to actually go up and it really was cool. You can see the whole, flat, flat city.

There's a bridge with two red towers toward the back, that's the Oberbaumbruecke (my favorite in Berlin.) To the right, in the middle is a pointy church steeple. My building is directly behind this church at Gorlitzer Park. The Spree river is separating Kreuzberg (r) from Friedrichshain (l). You can tell by some of the architecture that F'hain used to be the East. The East Side Gallery (a still-standing stretch of the Wall) runs along the Spree. You can kind of see it to the right of the blue tent thing at left. You can find a bigger version of this picture at my Picasa site.

We went to Teufel Ecke 2x ("Devil Corner" a death-metal bar with skulls and skeletons on the wall...also with a foosball table), Wild at Heart (a hot smelly rockabilly bar around the corner from me on Weiner Strasse), Balkan Tripps (a pingpong social club bar only open Tuesday and Friday nights featuring round-robin ping pong tourneys and good djs ( a where gabe tried to take a photo of a guy who looked like someone we went to Oberlin College with, and lo and behold it was the guy), and a farewell Italian dinner party for my buddy Fellippo.

I realized with Gabe and Tasha hear that Berlin could be the perfect city if I only I could import friends from Portland. I miss my friends way too much. But the truth is, even in Portland, some of my friends will be gone. Gabe's leaving for Honduras in August for 10 months and theknowledgist is roadtripping back east permanently in October or so. I've met cool people here as well, and I see them a lot. In fact, I'm pretty excited about a trip I'm going on with one of those people in a few hours.

You may remember Christina from the post about the carnival in the park with Germans covering CCR songs. We're headed to Prague by Deutschebahn from the Hauptbahnhof at 4:45 today. I'm excited to see the country by train and also to leave Germany again, if only for a brief time. We'll be in Prague tonight then leave Wednesday morning for Dresden where we'll stay for the whole day before jumping back on the DB for the final leg of the trip. I should be back in Berlin by midnight Wednesday. I'll post pictures when I have them. Prague should be great. But hot. Oh well.

If I'm not too tired Wednesday when we get back, Jeru tha Damaja is playing is playing over in Friedrichshain for 7.50, so I might try to catch that. Shows here start late, so it might work out. I need to see a show here. I haven't seen anything since The Blow played at an old Turkish Wedding Hall (Kreuzberg Festhalle) way back in April. I skipped seeing Talib Kweli and Jean Grae this past week. I too expensive and I've seen Kweli like 4 times already. It would have been nice to see Jean Grae, but I haven't heard anything new from either of them so....Well, time to pack for Prague. What does one bring? It seems I've forgotten 'Metamorphosis' in Portland...

New Photos on Picasa, Katherine flies and Køpi

2007-06-23T18:50:00.000+01:00

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)

2007-06-11T21:48:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-06-01T00:50:00.000+01:00

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.

One Score and Five Years Ago..

2007-05-21T10:39:00.000+01:00

I was born on the fourth floor of a house in a room overlooking the Lower West Side of Buffalo, NY.

Yesterday at my wohnung in Kreuzberg 36, East of Gorlitzer Park, we had a barbecue that lasted from around 4pm until 1am. People came and went but I definitely didnt get any sleep until 2 or something. In preparation on Saturday, I made a Teriyaki marinade I found on the web and proceeded to chop and submerge what seemed like a million vegetables (zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini ...ok, I had lots of vegetables but not much variety). With 10 cloves of garlic the marinade was not to be fucked with. Then before people started arriving Sunday I cut up even more vegetables, bought a crate of Berliner Beer and also created the best 'pin the tail on the donkey' donkey that you could imagine. Frankly I'm not sure when I got so good at drawing equine figures, but damn. It's like I went to bed and got jacked into the matrix to learn the art of paper donkey creation.

Well, maybe not quite the matrix...but I was pleased with my donkey - especially when placed in its natural habitat. Sadly I forgot to give him ears, but kein problem! We'll just turn the game into 'pin the ear and/or tail on the donkey.' Katherine and I worked on the ears and tails and in the end came up with the some pretty sweet appendages. She definitely deserves credit for coloring the ears fantastically as well as shaping the tails really well (including a bushy bottom).

Christina and Katherine both brought cakes that bore a striking resemblance to each other. While Christina's had a sugar sprinkled and 'Happy Birthday' lettering on top, Katherine made a '25' candle using matching as the candles. All in all it was pretty great to have two birthday cakes. Here's Katherine posing with both. I'm not sure how well the tandem Christina and I have is going considering that she didn't write: "Hertzlich Glueckwunsch zum Gebortstag" on the cake, but I suppose Happy Birthday is just a lot easier.

Birthday cakes and skewers were eventually thrown to the side sans hesitation as the countdown the donkeytown proceeded. Surprisingly, everyone got into this game that really makes no sense and in our case required quite a bit of trust that the person doing the spinning wouldn't point you in the direction of the hazardous stairs. I think the trick might have been my first prize offering: a king size bag of peanut MandM's. Not just any MandM's. I bought this bag in Portland the night before I got on the plane March 13th at the Plaid Pantry on the corner of SE Belmont and SE 30th.

Surely, these were special MandM's. Accordingly Stefani was pretty pumped, Rambo style.

The contestants, I mean guests, were are follows: 3 Italians, 1 Spaniard, 2 Frenchmen, 4 Americans (including me), 1 Austrian and of course 6 Germans. After much spinning and conflicts about exact spin numbers to be required we had a pretty shaggy looking donkey and a winner. In the end, Pierre - my french buddy - won the aforementioned first prize. Second prize (a silver mini-replica of the Eiffel Tower that I picked up in Pigalle in March) was taken by Ana - a classmate at Babylonia Sprachschule. Everyone else was pretty depressed, but its alright. If their ever going to be American's they'll have to learn to taking lickings and keeping on ticking.

Ticking..I mean, turning 25 in Berlin. What a story. I'm sure there's more to it.

Kirmes im Hasenheide Park (Carnival in Hare Heath Park)

2007-05-13T18:14:00.000+01:00

Thanks for the spelling Christina...
So, the tandem saga continues. Last week I met Christina for a trip to the Neukölln's carnival in Hasenheide Park for a little amusement park vocab lesson. It turned more into a cultural lesson as I was in turn told off, stared at angrily and serenaded.

We saw cookies with different loving messages on them (some in Turkish). I got the photo off just before being angrily told 'Kein foto.' I learned not to give the thumbs up to the guy working the bumper cars. (He really did do a sweet job parallel parking that thing though!) Apparently thumbs up can be really bad in some countries. He kind of frowned at me, walking away with his blue, but mostly white stonewashed jeans a gait that screamed 'fuck off.' On we went to the Euro Ball game (kind of looked like Skee Ball) and to "Break Dancin': The Ride." We circled back to finally relax for a little beer and a serenade...

The best part of the night was watching a 4 piece band perform classic American songs under a beer tent. With all of 6 people looking on, the leader singer - sweet toupe not to be forgotten - just belted it out. Sadly I didn't capture all of this CCR song, but you get the gist.

On Buffalo and Almost

2007-05-13T10:15:00.000+01:00

Everyone knows that I'm originally from Buffalo, NY. No matter how far away I get I always check in on the sports teams now and then. That's just what you do as a Buffalonian. That, and eat wings. But this whole vegetarian kick I've been on for 6 or 7 years has put a damper on the latter.

The Buffalo Sabres are in trouble in the Eastern Conference finals. After being a favorite to win the championship and sweeping through the early rounds they're now getting shitted on by the Ottawa Senators.

Sports are basically the life blood of Buffalo culture, and have been since steel died. The Bills have been a huge disappointment and now the Sabres are the verge.

This article from the Columbus Dispatch tells Buffalo's story in rather poetic terms. It's not all about Ani DiFranco and Vincent Gallo. Nor is it strictly about Rick James and The Goo Goo Dolls.

Greek Fire on hold. Aber, Bombs away.

2007-05-06T00:11:00.000+01:00

So, I have some bad news. The trip that definitely was is now that trip that almost was. Sadly, Nina has to work. Definitely lame. But on the plus side I'm going to visit Istanbul soon. I can't get the Hagia Sophia out of my head. Nor will Greek Fire remove itself. Plus germanwings is cheap.
On a lighter note (btw, if you want to ask for a lighter here you say: 'hast du feuer?' where feuer sounds like foyer...just in case you need to light a cigarette and you're surrounded by Pennsylvania Dutch), I had another tandem Thursday and it also went well. We spoke mainly English but it was all made worthwhile by one great discovery. Yes, you may have guessed it. While discussing swim class in high school I mentioned that cannonballs were the only dives I could do and that I was in the shallow end for the entire year of swim class. My partner then graciously gifted me with my new favorite German word. Yes. ARSCHBOMBE. It's not just a poop anymore - it's a cannonball.

Greek Fire...

2007-05-04T00:47:00.000+01:00

Hello again. Seems like I'm blogging a lot lately. Well, it more than seems. I guess it's a fact. But really I had to write about this latest news.

A few weeks ago I posted an ad on Berlin craigslist for a tandem partner. A tandem is an English-German trade off involving getting together with a native speaker. Conversation follows: 1 hour German, 1 hour English, etc. Don't get me wrong here, there's still no way in hell I can speak for 1 hour in German, but I try and it works out that I get something out of the deal (who knows how much I remember), but really its an English fest.

So yesterday was my first tandem. I met Nina at the Intimes Cafe in Friedrichshain and we proceeded.

I ordered a 'milchkaffee' which came in a huge bowl. Sehr lecker kaffee. Nina is a stewardess...I forget the German word, something like Flugkellnerin. About an hour into conversing (again, mainly in English) Nina announces that since she has 2 weeks off from work for ostensibly being sick, we should take a cheap flight somewhere. Not in any kind of, "let's go off on a honeymoon way," but more of a "I'm bored, have time off and want to travel and you don't have a job or much to do with your days so..."

I was pretty shocked to say the least. Imagine sitting down to have coffee and learn some German, then having the entire list of Lufthansa destinations being offered up for visitation! Now that's a dilly of a pickle. I was flabbergasted and really couldn't think of where to go. Of course the initial reaction is: India! Africa! Venezuela! Something super exotic and far away. But we looked at those and Lufthansa doesn't even fly to such hot places this time of year plus it takes 20 hours. It seems like the options are basically: any part of Europe, Iceland, South Africa, or Turkey. Today I found myself waffling between Lisbon, Amsterdam and Istanbul.

And therein lies the genesis for this blog post title: Greek Fire. How crazy is Greek Fire? It's a lost technology that ensured the survival and success of Byzantium for several hundred years by acting like napalm and burning enemy ships. Damn. Millenia of History? Check. Hagia Sofia? Check. Is that the destination? Who knows. I'll be there monday night or tuesday morning if all goes as planned. In the mean time you can weigh in on where I should travel. Let me know.

J1J2 and Kreuzberg Massaka

2007-05-03T11:40:00.000+01:00

wie geht's up?

j2, hey du!

and coming now, straight out of Kreuzberg 36:

May Day

2007-05-01T22:14:00.000+01:00

Every year, on the first of May here in Berlin there is a demonstration including marching, concerts, beer drinking, tischtennis (ping pong), drum and bass and of course a little friendly night-time rioting. Katherine and I meandered over to the demo early this afternoon, making sure to finish our beer in the park next to the gathering. Apparently glass bottles and masks concealing the face are illegal.
Strolling through the park are several Polizei in green get-ups carrying shiny white riot helmets. Its quite a bizarre scene, this degree to which riot police (thank god for the 'Anti Konflikt Team') presence and fashionable, protesting young Berliners square off. It seems to have taken on a party air in the days since the late 80s and 90s when riots occurred pretty regularly. Of course we hear during the day that leftists have successfully beaten back Neo-Nazis in Friedrichshain, and as the march begins from Lausitzer Platz towards Oranienstrasse and Mariannen Platz things are pretty dull.
Trucks roll on a preordained march path down Skalitzer Strasse blasting drum and bass from huge speakers while somewhat lethargic revellers dance and follow behind. The scene almost reminded me of going to Warped Tour back in Buffalo as a teenager: lots of punks, people dressed in black, drunks with beers, the smell of marijuana wafting through the crowds. Surprisingly Sean Paul made an appearance. I suppose the main differences would have to be the rancorous speeches before the march and the banners screaming political slogans instead of skateboard and soft drink company logos. My housemate Pierre designed banners promoting the march that reminded me of the i-Pod ads that with the silhouette'd dancers.
I ended the evening at Katherine's place, far away from the hubbub of riots and broken glass and drum and bass. We watched Battle Royale and I had some yogurt.

Then, on my way home as I crossed Wrangelstrasse to Sorauer Strasse I heard a ruckus. A car drove up quickly and by the time I was 15 feet down the street (5 meters?) I heard loud yelling. I wasn't sure if the cops and protesters were finally going at it, but I was excited to see some action. I kept on my way home, away from the action, but stopping every minute or two to look around and catch a glimpse. Punch! Yell! Car door slam. By the time I saw the punch I'd decided to just go home. More yelling and it looked like someone hunched over got herded into the car which then peeled out. Pretty exciting action, too bad it probably involved some girl problems instead of some state problems - a shame on May Day - but it kind of made sense post-Battle Royale.

Swedish Guests

2007-04-28T21:53:00.001+01:00

In Paris, Katherine and I found a few friends our first night in that god awful 'Friends Hostel.' This past week, they happened to pass through Berlin and while Katherine was in Vienna with her girlfriend Anna, I showed the new friends around Berlin (the abandoned amusement park and the Sowjet Ehrenmal) and Potsdam. The decrepit and deteriorating amusement park offers few clues to its state of disrepair. Signs all around announce "Privatgrundstueck" and rusting rides and overturned dinosaurs are pretty ominous. One could think of a few stories to explain it: the fall of the Berlin Wall, a mini Tilt-A-Whirl Chernobyl, a polizei raid...

Fact is, the best story I've heard is the one that's said to be true: The former owner imported a lot of the rides after the fall of the wall from all over the world. One of those rides happened to be a Ferris Wheel - from South America (location unspecified...but does it matter?). Apparently pieces of the Ferris Wheel were inspected by customs in Germany. Apparently they found cocaine hidden within. The owner was arrested and went bankcrupt while the park folded.

Annikas and Emelie left rural, western Sweden around two months ago for a train tour of Europe and Berlin was their last stop. They're 22 and have known each other since age 7. This was somewhat of a discovery trip for them. I see my own trip to Berlin in a similar way as well (at least sometimes), and it was a provoking intersection. In terms of traveling for an extended period of time I could really see the advantages of having a partner in crime. We spent a few days just relaxing in parks and a few nights checking out the kneipen (bars) in Kreuzberg (Barbie Deinhoff's, Sofia, etc). It was nice being a tour guide here and Berlin is pretty much known to me now. Even though we only hung out for a week I already miss lazing around in the sun, talking about Swedish vs. English and the best ways to travel. They left at 5 a.m. this morning and I spent the day in the park with my books and a beer.

Pictures from the Game

2007-04-24T07:33:00.000+01:00

Berlin Thunder Game at Olympiastadion

Berlin Thunder Ho-oooooh.

2007-04-22T23:25:00.000+01:00

Today was the big day! Today was the home opener for the Berlin Thunder! If you haven't already heard, the Thunder is the NFL EUROPA team for Berlin. I was pretty excited for today because not only did I manage to get a free ticket (oh yeah) but the game was at Olympiastadion. This is the spot where Zinadine Zidane headbutted the Italian (don't remember his name, and frankly he can eat a D anyway..) and pushed France toward losing the 2006 World Cup Final. More importantly however, this stadium was the keystone to the 1936 Berlin Olympics that saw Jesse Owens win the gold medal over a Japanese runner and a German. From where we sat today I could see where Hitler must've been seated when he saw his Aryan ubermenschen crushed by an African-American.
So that was pretty cool. All in all its a really well designed stadium and the beers come in .5 or 1 liter sizes. God damn. It was like a pitcher of beer just asking to be chugged.

Pointless sidenote: At the White House Correspondents Association dinner a few days ago Rich Little, a Canadian comic who does a lot of impressions, bombed pretty badly. Luckily, I googled him and came across his homepage, where you can buy his sweet tribute drawings of celebrities and presidents. A different kind of impression I guess. You have to buy a membership and then you receive a drawing periodically in the mail. Sounds awesome. I want Tom Cruise first though.

Post Script: Yes I wore my Buffalo Bills T-Shirt. I'll put some of the other bizarre photos on flickr asap.

My WG, My Bike, A Trip to the Deutsch History Museum

2007-04-06T23:10:00.000+01:00

So, I finally got around to snapping some pictures of my WG and my new bicycle. I life just to the right on the ground floor. That's my 4€ soccer ball from a small Turkish bodega on Wrangelstrasse.

On Friday I took a trip to the history museum - by bike. I'm finally getting a sense for how to get around this town, even though I still get turned around. There's really only one building on the skylineline - the TV tower - in Alexanderplatz and it looks the same from all sides. So you can make a guess about which side of it your on, but frankly I have problems sometimes.
Speaking of that damned needle I made a trip to its base and came across a really old church that seemed to have been pretty bombed out during the war. In trying to recreate a stained glass triptych they were having tourists and members of the congregation buy bits of number coded, colored glass and use sticky putty to afix it to glass panels with a crucifixion scene. It was pretty striking, bizarre and mildly offputting. But I'm getting used to these historical churches having gift shops offering memorobilia, so why not a Paint-By-Numbers Jesus?

(notice how everybody wants a piece of Jesus, not so much the leper)

The German History Museum featured a pretty interesting installation comparing and art and propaganda in Italy, Germany, the USSR, and the USA from 1930 to 1945. It was pretty striking to see how the art converged and diverged from images of the leader through images of development and industrialization through renderings of the ideal citizen and then in images of war and battles. A French roommate of mine, Pierre, had problems with the way the exhibit put all the regimes kind of on equal footing concerning versions of ideals embodied and evenly numbering collections. Basically he was arguing that putting idealized renderings of Hitler in the same room as those of FDR was kind of intellectually lazy (probably as lazy as that last section) and allowed the ideals of each regime equal footing. It was more like an art exhibit than one with historical inclinations perhaps. I agree to an extent. I found myself admiring Italian Futurist art celebrating war, Stalinist Pan-Soviet Murals celebrating disastrous collectivization, and Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. I noted that something about the American art genuine and truthful to me - I'm not sure if this is because those war time images from Life magazine or Norman Rockwell are any less propagandistic or because they're part of my own identity. In any case it was good to get out of Kreuzberg and see something vaguely intellectual and interesting.
The top two floors of the museum housed an exhibit about every day life in the DDR (East Germany) with posters, tv broadcasts and objects from typical homes, stores and schools. I'm finding that conflict between East and West to still ride on the minds of a lot of Germans, so it was cool to see the paraphenalia considering my own estrangement from the situation.
Upon leaving the museum I headed down Unter den Linden Strasse and promptly found myself at the Brandenburg Tor - the complete opposite direction I had intended. With the help of a city map posted at a bus shelter I found my way back to Sorauer Strasse and was home.
Sorry I haven't been posting much, lots of stuff is happening but frankly I'm too lazy.
Today it's Easter Sunday and I'm feeling pretty homesick. Not that I'm even Christian or anything. I just miss getting chocolate bunnies and seeing all the lame American Easter decorations at Walgreens.
I'll get more on the ball about it soon though and you may be able to find new pictures on my flickr page without there being a new blog post.

Gasolina? In Berlin? In Kreuzberg? Jah.

2007-03-31T01:34:00.000+01:00

(aug 2005, Hug Point, Oregon, USA)
So folks, apparently reggaeton has made it to Berlin. Tonight at around 12 I meandered over to a party in a party den in Gorlitzer Park. I didn't really know what to expect, but a few of my roommates were there and man, did I feel the hankering to go out on a Friday night. I'd already had an Allgauer Brauhaus Bueble Bier and was feeling a little tired for the evening. But no, I must push on. I'm an explorer in a foreign land, what could a party hut in the middle of petting zoo in the middle of a run down park in the middle of Kreuzberg possibly be like? Turns out it was pretty decent. A fundraiser for a squat hausprojekt around here, beers were 2 € and I was in a giving mood. Hanna and Katherine had both warned me already that House music was the RocknRoll of Europe and that if I planned on having any fun while over here I'd better start getting down.
Therein lies the problem. I walked in and was pretty excited to be in a crowd and just hanging at a party. For the first 15 minutes or so it was nothing but House. Then all of the sudden the first chords to Abba's Gimme,Gimme,Gimme came on and blam - it was Madonna time. Next followed a pretty dull lull of house before long that Indian song that Jay-Z had rapped over a few years ago came on - a good sign. But alas...more house followed. Eventually the DJ moved into Salsa-land, which most of the Berliners seemed confused about...not I, thanks to Melvin Jimenez's Ex-Co course at Oberlin. Or at least I wasn't totally clueless. But then came a surprise. Reggaeton was alive and well in Berlin, and it was time to hear 'CULO' loud and clear. Yes, Daddy Yankee and the Gasolina crew came on briefly. That was the last big highlight of the evening as it was followed by some pretty tepid German rock (apparently some anthems to cooperative living in Hausprojekts, and so on). Another highlight: my roommate Pierre (a French graphic designer for lefty causes) and I ended up talking music and will soon be sharing i-Pods. Pierre's girlfriend Janna, (also my roommate and from Liepzig and a teacher at Babylonia, my cooperative German language school) and Patrick were also there. Patrick doesn't speak any English, so there's always an interesting tension when we hang out because frankly, I can't communicate beyond the first few sentences and because of that have trouble even going through those basic lines with him. But anyway, we all danced and eventually left as the Violent Femmes Add It Up and then Green Day's When I Come Around came on. A bizarre 'dance' party indeed. I'm not sure how exactly I'll fare in the Deutsch party scene, but as long as I've got decent roommates, who're willing to tell me about a party and hold my hand here and there I should be alright.

(mar 2007, Paris, France, Europe)

Paris. Oh. My. God.

2007-03-25T21:33:00.000+01:00

4:36 AM.
I awoke on the top bunk and frantically checked my cell phone. "4:36." Next was my iPod. It screamed 4:36 as well. Now this wouldn't normally be a problem but frankly, Katherine and I had a plane to catch at 7:45 at Orly Sud. We'd been in Paris for 3 days or so and it seemed like mishaps were pretty par for the course. Now I jumped off the bunk to wake her and run downstairs. See, the problem wasn't that it was 4:36 and we have 3 hours to get to the airport far south of Paris. The real difficulty lay in the daylight savings switch that had happened the night before. So really it was 5:36 and we had to book it from 'Le Village,' our hostel in Montmartre, to the Metropolitain for a long trip. We'd briefly considered renting a cab (45 Euros ($60)at least) or taking the train to the airport the night before.
But, since we'd already booked the hostel for our this final night we decided getting some rest was for the best and we bedded down. Sadly we both have fairly dated phones that don't automatically update for daylight savings. And therein lies the rub.
So, my knee feeling sort of out of place we ran downstairs. We ran down Rue de la Chappelle (or something) and made it to the 2 line. At Gar du Nord we had to buy our 8 Euro ticket on the Orly bus. But alas! We didn't have that in coinage, nor did we have this bullshit Eurocheck card you need. Credit? No such luck. I ran to a few police and told them the story and without much hesitation just told us to get on the train.
Needless to say Katherine and I are now back in Berlin and it really felt like I was coming home. Compared to Paris its so amenable and comfortable here. Plus its far cheaper.

Lets see...other Paris highlights...
*eating bread and cheese like it was going out of style.
*Forcing Katherine to let me fill her bookbag with all sorts of cheeses to bring back to Germany.
*Katherine's new bootleg North Face bookbag from Thailand smelling like really stanky feet. Stanky feet belonging to several people.
*Walking along the Seine at night. The whole city is just lit up and golden.
*The Pompidou Modern Art Museum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Georges_Pompidou
*6 AM train to the airport and a speed freak clubber that looked sooo skeezy starts dancing to house music on his friends boombox. 4 girls on the train promptly exit. I remain envious of his hand-swirling-the-head-dance moves. Sensational.
*10 PM the night before. 15 year old French kid freestyling over a Chronic 2001 beat on the Subway. Sensational.
*Having a guy from Ghana (Patrick) stop me to make a friendship bracelet on my finger while smoothtalking me. I told him from the start I wasn't giving him anything, yet he still was pissed after he tied the bracelet on me. He then unknotted it awkwardly.
*Laughing basically nonstop with Katherine.
*Having the worst chapped lips of my life!
*Dealing with Berlin's S-Bahn early on a Sunday morning when we just wanted to get home!
*Getting home.

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I've just uploaded a bunch of photos to my flickr account
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Also, I just came across this rather interesting recipe for cat (please don't try):

Roast Cat as You Wish to Eat It

Source [Libre del Coch, R. Carroll-Mann (trans.)]:
123. Roast Cat as You Wish to Eat It. You will take a cat that is fat, and decapitate it. And after it is dead, cut off the head and throw it away because it is not for eating, for they say that eating the brains will cause him who eats them to lose his senses and judgment. Then flay it very cleanly, and open it and clean it well, and then wrap it in a cloth of clean linen. And bury it beneath the ground where it must be for a day and a night; and then take it out of there and set it to roast on a spit. And roast it over the fire. And when beginning to roast it, grease it with good garlic and oil. And when you finish greasing it, whip it well with a green twig , and this must be done before it is well-roasted, greasing it and whipping it. And when it is roasted, cut it as if it were a rabbit or a kid and put it on a big plate; and take garlic and oil blended with good broth in such a manner that it is well-thinned. And cast it over the cat. And you may eat of it because it is very good food.

Pay what you like?

2007-03-21T00:39:00.000+01:00

Imagine a cold, unfinished apartment in Berlin with three people - two Swedes, one American - staring at a digital recreation of a fireplace on a monitor, fake wood crackling on the speakers.

It may sound alien to us Americans, but the phenomenon of 'pay what you will' restaurants is kind of widespread in Berlin. I met a knew Swedish friend, Lotta, at one of these earlier in the evening. Well actually we met at this incredibly old Zionkirch in Prenzlauer Berg. Sort of north northwest of Kreuzberg. Lotta had been to these places before, but I wasn't quite prepared.
A projection splashed on one wall of the restaurant and the owner/host/commandant pointed us toward a table. We sat there for awhile until he mentioned that we might want some wine. He explained that you pay one euro for an empty glass and then have as much wine as you like. Pointing to a pretty wide selection sitting on the bar, free for the taking, he reminded us that we should pay as we saw fit for the food as well. Pouring some pretty fine vino we sat at our overly wobbly table and checked out a handwritten menu with no prices.
Conversation was pretty good. Lotta is 26, from Gothenburg (in so. Sweden) and wants to be an industrial designer. Her mother was involved in the Green Party and not long ago after her father and grandfather's brother died, her small remaining family (mother,brother,her) owned 4 summer cottages all around Sweden.
We spoke and checked out the scene and slowly noticed that the projection on the wall was not a still image at all, but a video of the stove in the kitchen. You could see broth smoking and every so often a cook would add a pan with some onions or pasta. It was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in a restaurant. I'm sure it must exist somewhere else as well. At least it should.
Our food was great and we had a glass or two more. And then things got interesting. Or embarassing. But I'm not sure who was on which end....While making a point, Lotta managed to knock over her reasonably well filled glass of wine directly in my direction. I'm not sure I even noticed what happened at first. Too shocked to really move, and fearing that moving would somehow just spread the wine around a little more, I let Lotta try to deal with it. She grabbed a bunch of napkins and ran back to the table. It was obvious how embarassed and sorry she was. I was sorry for her - really. I would've really hated to do that to someone. But through all my embarassment for her came this one realization: 'This wine drenched pair of pants is the only pair I have in Berlin right now (my other pair, from the gap ripped a huge hole in the crotch 2 days ago...f the gap), and this 'niederhoffer' T-shirt with wine dots on it is probably one of my all-time favorites (plus its one of only three in existence).'
In a flurry of napkins, stains and a waiter who thought Lotta hadn't paid enough, we left shortly thereafter - Lotta wobbling on her old bike and urging me to sit on the back. That way we'd get to her place faster to deal with the stains. Too scared off further disaster (not only of falling but of the 40€ fine it carried), I denied the offer and we meandered up Kastanien Strasse to her place which is basically located at Eberswalder Strasse. There the plan was to do something about my clothes. Jonas and Jonna, her flatmates were home and Jonas lent me a very tight T-shirt and some oversize dressy pants. Luckily I wasn't stuck wearing the EIGHTBALL athletic pants that were also offered. While the computer animated fire crackled on Jonas' computer, we hung for a while and I got the story of these other two Swedes. Jonas answers calls from Scandinavia as a phone tech support for a laser printer company and Jonna makes waffles at a waffle shop. Meanwhile, Lotta was trying to figure out the clothes situation. By the time I stumbled back onto the U-bahn I had some recommendations about Paris from Jonna, some oddly sized cloths from Jonas and my wet hoody in a bag from Lotta.
Tomorrow I'll go back to see if my dearly beloved clothes are finally dry (no dryers here, only clothes hangers). Katherine and I leave for Paris tomorrow and I'm going to buy a digital camera at the base of Alexanderplatz beforehand. Then finally there'll be a photo document of this insanity!

Oh, and I have to buy some pants. F the Gap.

On Turkish Markets, 'handys', 'WGs' and haus projekt hip hop

2007-03-18T03:42:00.000+01:00

My a lot has happened. There are markets here that you just happen upon. Huge markets. At first it seemed small enough. I barely noticed it walking along the canal. Was it the Spree? Methinks not. But I had to see for myself. And then you enter this thronging throbbing slow moving everyone touching snake. Any kind of produce you could want. Beautiful shiny fabrics used for head scarves and dresses. Things frying with spinach and cheese (I had one: kais mit spinat). I was almost sold a bicycle as well. White hard cheeses that all seem very salty and very foreign and very mysterious next to buttloads of olives and oddly shaped breads. I wish I had some photos of it all. I eventually made my way out with some sweet oranges, tomatoes, apples and 3 avocadoes (3/1Euro). I found my way home and still Katherine hadn't arrived.
Katherine was to arrive that afternoon, back from Chicago but she took a little longer than expected. She's here now though. Everything is fine.
The day before the Turkish excursion (which had really just started as a long winding aimless walk - the kind I really like), I managed to go check out a WG in the neighborhood. A WG (vay-gay) is a Wohngemeinschaft {thanks jean}, or living community. They vary in nature from the super communal - holding dinners regularly, open showers, sharing food to a somewhat less entwined community. That seems to be what I checked out. Its this 5 or 6 story building in Kreuzberg that was squatted back in the '80s when tons of these 100-year old buildings were empty because no one wanted to live in the neighborhood. It was West Berlin but so close to the wall that it was on the outskirts of the city basically. You can see the area here: 23 Sorauer Strasse: Meine neu haus? The wall was just over the river Spree there.
So anyway, long story short I'll be living in a 340 sq foot room thats painted all white (including the woods floors). There are around 6 other people in the building including a mother of a 1.5 y.o. baby. Everyone's in their 30s and is a student of some sort. Since school here is basically free and employment is basically nonexistent, the former is a good option and many people are pursuing a few subjects. So I'll be in that house for 2 months (when my sublettee returns) and then who knows? Is that even a word? I have no idea. If it is, its probably not spelled like that.
Kreuzberg is a vibrant place to be and I'm happy to be here. Being the area that Mary and I crashed in a while ago, its the one I know best in Berlin yet its also kind of offputting sometimes to be in all these same places. But its about making them new again I suppose. Already I feel like I know the city much better and things make some sense. Plus I love the graffiti:

Coming soon: my 'handy' adventure and voyage to 'subversif': haus projekt hiphop, fussball tables and the smokiest basement ever.

Going to the Bathroom

2007-03-14T17:17:00.000+01:00

First impressions...

Arrival and Sushi

2007-03-13T10:45:00.000+01:00

I made it into Berlin today at around 1210 and it was beautiful and sunny and fairly warm. Pretty exciting. This is Anna - Katherine's pierced-lipped girlfriend. I'm staying in the guest room at her apartment now in X-berg (Kreuzberg). There's a little baby kitty named Sushi who's sleeping next to me now and Anna's housemates seem cool so far.
Tomorrow morning I head off to Babylonia language school to test my German skills. I'll also be getting a phone and maybe some Euros. Those come in handy I hear. Long distance calling is pretty cheap. You find a 5 digit prefix on a website and it acts like a phone card for wherever you want to call. Then on that months bill all the different prefixes get separated out - so everyone knows what they owe.
I fell asleep basically upon arrival. I fear jet lag has got me in its vice-grip (its now 2:30 AM and I'm wide awake).

Lufthansa treated me right though. I magically got 2 seats all to myself! And although I didn't sleep, it was a pretty decent trip. The cinematic oceanic experience was quite lame - Rocky Balboa followed by Marie Antoinette. Although I ended up staying awake and watching both films I had the nagging sensation that I somehow still wasted my life. Surprisingly though, Rocky was the more interesting movie. Sly's plastic surgery enhanced face and pitiless rehashing of a movie series now 6 films deep held my attention for much longer than Sophia Coppola's beautifully shot yet beautifully boring one.

Don't give me shit for that. You try flying 9.5 hours after 3 Warsteiners, 1 whiskey/sprite and 1 cognac. Go ahead.
I shot some footage on the plane. Once I get set up for video action I'll post a little something something.
I'll let you know how my 'handy' (cellphone) excursion goes. Oh and I get to buy a bike!

BYAAH!

2007-03-12T22:00:00.000+01:00

I'm at the airport - about to disappear into the clouds. SHIT! theknowledgist drove me hear and it was the perfect day to leave Portland. Bright grey, light rain, not a mountain in sight.

It's sort of been a blurry few weeks since the layoff but seeing all my friends and having a few nice Portland days scattered through let me know what I was leaving. Not sure I really understood that until I asked somebody what time it was and they weren't quite sure what I was saying! And this is at the airport.

But what's done is done. I'm here. I'll be there. I hear the flight's 9 hours. Short layover in Frankfurt and then I'm back in Berlin. For nigh on 135 days. Them's a lot of days. I hope some interesting things happen. Otherwise this could be a boring ass blog for the next little while. And that simply wouldn't be acceptable. Or prudent. I'll be in Paris by next wednesday (to visit my old Fusion buddy) and hopefully in an apartment within a few weeks. I'm staying with my good friends until then - so this isn't just a leap into the deutsch. Speaking of good friends thanks to everyone who came out this weekend to say goodbye. To those who couldn't...fuck y'all!

No - just kidding. See you in August. Wish me a good flight.

We board pretty shortly here and I hear we get free newspapers - score.

Well once again, so long Portland. So long Seattle. So long Buffalo. And as theknowledgist tagged in my address book last night at Beulah Land: so long 'US of Fucking A. BYAAH!'

Prolugue: Ok, well, I'm in Seattle.

2007-02-19T11:31:00.000+01:00

But Berlin is on the way! Gabe and I took the Cascades Amtrak line up to Seattle Friday night and got our asses beaten at chess by some young bloods on the train. We were expecting cigar and poker, but all we got was lit up at the classic game of chess. Damn those schools! We need more imbeciles I tell you! It was Brad's birthday Friday night, but Gabe and I were pretty trainwrecked. Tom, our buddy from Oberlin has been escorting us all around the city by car. Today we went to the waterworks and eventually ended up at on of the best Thai places I've ever visited, conveniently called 'Thai Tom'. Later on we played drinking UNO at Brad's place with the old keg and then went out to Dick's. If you're not familiar with Dick's its a great fast food drive in here. Ketchup costs 5 cents and a burger is $1.15. Not that I got that, but still. Eventually we ended up at Dr. Dre night at club havana. Not quite sure where it was, but it was definitely hip and happening. Just like that phrase. Now I think Gabe's playing Civilization IV in the other room and I'm blogging. Am I a blogger? We'll see...just stay tuned for the upcoming adventures of an American Wolf in Berlin. Beginning March 13, 2007!