Just some quick notes

I really haven’t had any time to keep up this passed week, and I’m not going to try to catch up tonight (it’s almost 1am and I’m exhausted). But, since I might not have any time tomorrow either, here are some quick notes that I may or may not come back to:

-lunch with Amia last Wed.

-Party on Saturday, Ich habe viel getrunken.

-Jamming with Marlene on Sunday. Ich habe ein gross kopfschmerzen gehaben. Some more of her yummy vodka (not the same exact hair from the same exact dog, but effective). And then onto Hana’s party in Kruezberg where we tested out our improv song concept with a surprisingly fair degree of success.

-Monday – I made 80 euros!!! I taught Heike and kids as usual, then Eliza (12), a 5 year old boy whose name I can’t remember (quick note: teaching an active 5-year old boy to play guitar for the very first time, well that’s not easy. Teaching an active 5-year old boy to play guitar for the very first time and who DOESN’T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH??? Now that my friend is on a whole new level), the mutter of die kinder, und der vatter Wolfgang who I’m going in more of a classical direction with I think.

- Tomorrow, farewell dinner for Amia

- Thursday lesson with Katharina

- Many possibilities for the weekend.

I’ll try to keep you posted (and by “you” I of course mean “me”).

eta: Birthday Oreos from Anne Marie!

Mein Geburtstag

I really hadn’t given much thought to my birthday this year. When Meghan first said she was coming a few weeks ago, I toyed with the idea of throwing a party in the apartment over the weekend and sorta tying it in with my birthday, but the days passed, and the weekend approached, and I never really got around to pursuing the whole thing. But my main concern was having something here for Meghan.

So, the fact that my birthday turned out how it did was really a pleasant surprise.

It began with my alarm going off as usual, followed by a few half-conscious swipes of my hand over the back of the head to land on the big button which put the world on hold for 9 minutes, as usual, and then diverged (only slightly) from the usual when I decided that today sleep was going to overrule class. This had nothing to do with the fact that it was my birthday BTW – just that I really needed to catch up on sleep a bit. However, I did have lessons to teach, and so I met Heike in our usual spot at 12:45 and headed to Wannsee. During my time there I sorta mentioned in passing that it was my birthday (I actually was just practicing my German and happened to have recently learned the word “geburtstag” so I really couldn’t resist the opportunity to use it) which she responded to with affectionate enthusiasm. When Rafael and Maya came home we gathered in the kitchen and I played guitar while they all sang me a traditional German birthday song. It was very sweet (and a little embarrassing). After the lesson with Maya, she surprised me with a bouquet of flowers and a bar of chocolate (she had run out during the lesson). The lessons went well, she made a wonderful dinner as usual (stuffed red peppers), and I had a nice little birthday surprise which made me feel special in the way that people are supposed to feel on their birthday.

(On an unrelated note, she also told me that her friend/neighbor would like to start guitar lessons with me next week, which includes a father and son (or daughter, I forgot) so that’s now a total of 6 students! – the only problem is, when I asked if they spoke english she kinda hesitated and said, “well, no, not really”. They actually speak Polish as a first language I believe. So, truth be known, I’m a bit nervous. It will be an interesting challenge to say the least!).

I got home at around 7 which was the time I was meeting Marlene (though she called because she was a bit delayed, which was good because I needed some time to rest for a bit anyway). We made plans last week when I was at her apartment and the subject of birthdays came up (ok, I know it probably seems like I’m just being coy, but honestly I don’t think I brought the subject up. Truth is, I really was resigned to it being just a normal day). I was actually a bit uncomfortable with the thought of her coming over in the way that I was a bit nervous with Meghan coming because I felt a certain degree of pressure to sorta bring the fun. I never like having those expectations on me and I’m always so relieved when I discover that the person I’m with really has no such expectations. I’ve discovered this time and time again with Meghan over the years, and tonight I discovered it with Marlene.

She came over with a birthday bottle of Jack, and after a few warming sips we took a walk in the area to find a bar or something. We spoke comfortably, looking in a few windows and passing on a few places before we came to a cozy looking little place 2 blocks from my apartment, which we really only went into because she spotted a fireplace inside. The place had a real old world charm with a sort of eastern European intimacy. I ordered a nice, hot grog, Marlene a whiskey, and we settled in. There was an old man wearing a kind smile across the table where we were sitting who pulled out a guitar and started playing with the music in the room.  I’m guessing the woman behind the bar was his wife, based on their apparent familiarity with each other, though I can’t be sure since no one was speaking any english. Also joining us around the table was a man from Russia (perhaps a few years older than me) with a full beard named Piotr, and another woman who was considerably older.

At some point the ambient music cut out and the guitar-playing man led in singing some (presumably) eastern european folk songs (at least some of which Marlene knew, particularly one Russian one which I didn’t know but really enjoyed). The barkeep handed me a drum and we had a blast jamming into the night. I really enjoyed sharing in these foreign folk tunes , which is not to say that I didn’t also enjoy the Beatles songs that followed (Let it Be, Get Back, some others I can’t remember) – in the way that english is the international language, perhaps Beatles’ songs are the international pop tunes.  At some point Piotr overheard me speaking english and joined in. Turns out he had spent 13 years in America, studied archeology at Harvard, and has perhaps seen more of America than I have (or at least he’s been farther west). Throughout the course of the night we talked about a few things, including American politics and the election and how Rudy is likely just pandering to his right-wing base, while Hillary’s personality makes her so divisive, and how Obama can probably connect with many swing voters but we debated a bit if his youth might prevent him from being effective in international diplomacy, etc. He lives just upstairs of the bar and so we’re going to get together again soon when he returns (he’s actually heading to the states for Thanksgiving).

At yet another point the guitar was handed to me (again not to be coy but I was a bit ambivalent about accepting it because I can often alienate myself from a social atmosphere once I begin playing). I was a bit shy with it because I really don’t know many songs. But Marlene’s idea was that we improvise something together, which is of course where I’m most at home, and so we did.  I put out a little groove and she fell wonderfully into it and ran with it beautifully and thus, out came a song. She has a great voice and is wonderfully adventurous when she improvises. We did another, I whipped out a Blackbird, and then I handed the guitar off so as to not get too deeply sucked in.

The night rolled on, until eventually we decided to head out. They’ve welcomed us back to play, so Marlene and are going to see if we can put something together this Saturday.

I can’t think of a better way to have spent my birthday.

(I know I have some emails and phone calls to return. Hopefully I’ll catch up tomorrow night or Thursday.)

My weekend with Meghan

Is there anything more joyful than a weekend with Meghan? How about a weekend with Meghan – in Berlin? (I have a feeling that a weekend with Meghan in Paris tops them all, and I’m looking forward to putting that to the test as soon as possible).

Meghan arrived Friday night and, given that we were both exhausted from the week, we enjoyed a nice relaxed night sipping champagne and listening to music with Claudia (who incidentally provided the champagne – Thanks Claudia!).

Saturday we achieved our goal of getting out and about before 4pm by at least 2 hours(!) beginning with a walk down Bergmann Strasse, followed by a really fantastic late lunch of Nepalese (not sure if that’s the proper adjective for Nepal but I’m sticking with it for now) food, and then my quest for cake (actually I was just craving anything remotely related to chocolate, and we came across a place in Lonely Planet that was described as being famous for their cake) up a ways on Oranien Platz which led us not to the place we set out to find (when we finally did find the place described in the book it just didn’t quite feel like what we were looking for), but to another bar around the corner where I had a mediocre tiramisu (but which at least appeased my craving for the time being) and a Jack Daniels on the rocks (for some strange reason I’ve been in the mood for Jack often lately), and Meghan got a grog (a rum and water drink served hot, delicious delicious). (note to any English teachers who might be reading: yeah it ran on a bit but I challenge you to find a single grammatical mistake in that sentence!).

Now we got to that bar at about 7ish I think, and we left at around 8:30 (I think). I mention this because there’s absolutely nothing remarkable about the way time seemed to be progressing at this point in the night, and this is in stark contrast to the way time seemed to progress after this point.

Meghan had a friend she knew in her immunological circles who had a friend who was having a Birthday party at a gay bar near Nollendorf Platz. We got there at about 9pm and soon learned that the party was open bar, which we learned at about the same time that the bottomless pitcher of cosmopolitan made its way around the room.  A little later I changed things up a bit and ordered a cocktail with lord knows how many types of alcohol in it (but the main ingredient was Jack) and which packed quite a punch, but one I sipped slowly and cautiously enough. Both Meghan and I drank fairly steadily throughout the night, but I think both of us did so at a reasonably comfortable pace – nothing crazy. And the conversation was generally good and people were very friendly and fun… and it was a good night.

BUT…

it really wasn’t the kind of night where you, expecting it to be, oh, say 1am, overhear that it’s actually after 4!! It was really a strange mystery to both of us, which we decided to investigate over a few beers and Dorito-like chips with cheese dip. Finally, (feeling a bit embarrassed and guilty that we were the only ones left in the bar besides the B-day boy and his boyfriend, and we were still enjoying the open bar they’d provided, though neither of us knew them) we left and got home at about 6:30 am I think.

It was a good night.

Sunday was a good day too. We walked along the spree from Warschauer to Alexander Platz, went to the huge flea market in Prenzlauer Berg, settled into a bar for a bit for some delicious Gluhwein (red wine with cloves and spices served hot with a slice of orange – a German winter specialty), got back to the apartment fairly early, watched “Crazy Love”, did my German homework together (with Claudia’s help too), and that was that.

There are few people in the world I laugh so easily with.

Tea and Vodka with Marlene, Beers with Martin

Yesterday, I went over to Marlene’s place in Prenzlauer Berg in the afternoon. We started with tea and progressed to vodka at some point (and a very good vodka it was I must say), with the sounds of Radiohead’s latest filling the empty spaces (note to Jay Saltz – a very good album indeed!).

OK, now I know it’s getting to be a tiresome cliche for a New Yorker to comment on real estate value, but you just can’t have lived in NYC in the last few years, see an apartment like this, and not ponder what it would cost in NYC. My guess? In Queens, probably $3000/month. Upper East side Manhattan, I’m guessing over 5… (reason #142: why I love this city).

After that I met Martin in a bar in Kreuzberg for a few beers and some good conversation.

When I got home I was so hungry I could barely maintain a thought long enough to plan a meal. Eventually I did decide on simply making a huge pot of spaghetti.

Today (Thursday), was kind of a nothing day for me, which perhaps I’d been needing for a bit.  I did some playing, and my German homework (for a rare change), spoke with Claudia about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (literally), responded to a few emails, and not much else.

And now I shall sleep.

Inner Rockstar Event – Part 6 (Sunday)

Sunday I awoke to the sounds of Gloria Gaynor’s immortal “I Will Survive” as realized by Andreas on unplugged electric guitar, and Pipaluk and others on vocals, all coming from the kitchen/bar area. On the opposite side of the room were the windows, which, by their transparent nature, completely failed to hide yet another snowstorm. The room was peaceful, and though the original intention was for the event to be continuous, there was the definite sense that we were all taking a break.

I allowed myself to wake a bit, then joined the 4 or 5 people in the kitchen, still jamming to “I Will Survive”. I was only too happy to grab a guitar and join.  “I Will Survive” is one of those great pop tunes that catches you and pulls you into its repeating harmonic cycle (as demonstrated by the violin/piano duet on youtube which Andreas mentioned to me at the time and which I accidentally stumbled upon yesterday. What the heck, here’s the link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Xui7x_KF7bY ). Andreas and I improvised back and forth on it a bit and started to talk through the jazzy upper extensions.

Eventually we got back into event-mode, but the mood was generally more laid back. A few nice free improvisations broke out sorta casually around the space. I kept Marlene company for a bit while she was working the entrance. She had her electric guitar and amp there and so we did some jamming, along with Alexander and another girl (who I believe is part of halfmachine, though I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her).

At one point in the afternoon 2 guys, presumably in response to some encouragement from Pipaluk or someone, wanted to form a band with me, but they were unsure of what to do, and kept asserting that neither of them played an instrument. I assured them that it was OK, most people here didn’t, and that it wasn’t necessary to know how to play an instrument in order to play an instrument. I gave them some ideas, and tried to guide them in talking through it. Since it was to be their band, it was their concept, and at least one of them would have to play the lead role (which generally means “sing” though not necessarily). Eventually one took the drum set, the other took the mic and made percussive sounds, which I mimicked with harmonics on the guitar. We fell into a groove with this sound for at least a few minutes, until it built into something that worked really well I think. We hit a nice peak, then brought it back down, and enjoyed the applause that we, as rock stars, were due. Shortly after, I took my shift at the bar.

Eventually, the event wound down to the last minutes when we all got in a circle and talked through how to end it. Melanie led a stunningly beautiful vocal improvisation where she threw out a simple melody for us all to begin on in unison and loop, and then branch out on. It was very musical, and impressive for 20 people to make work.

For the final 5 minutes we all laid together in silence. It was a nice way to end it.

Inner Rockstar Event – Part 5 (Saturday)

Please allow me to digress for a moment about Berlin weather, for it is my only major complaint about the city. First off, it is generally quite predictable. Now, that in and of itself is not a complaint, nor would it be if one’s predictions could be both reliable and positive, or if you could open a casino and at least make some money off some suckers who think they can beat the house by erroneously supposing that with a sky so large and a sun so big, surely the odds are that the latter would make at least one appearance in a given amount of time (an hour, a day, etc.). Trust me when I say, the house would clean the shirt off your back (which would be particularly bad considering the weather here). Still, when the weather chooses to break with habit, it does so with style.

Hence, when I descended down into the U bahn tunnels early Saturday afternoon, I left behind a mostly clear, bright, sunny, not-quite-warm-but-not-unpleasantly-cold-either day. I surfaced 20 minutes later on Pank Strasse into a fuckin blizzard!! wow.

Back to the story…

So I arrived at the studio and immediately went to work creating my hotel room. I’d brought a curtain and a scarf and so, using the chains hanging from the ceiling grid I rigged up a translucent wall behind which I pulled a sofa chair and made myself at home for the next 26 or so hours. The event was underway – there were improvisational sounds coming from various corners, people were exploring the space with movement, and we were in open space mode. A very strikingly beautiful dance seemed to spontaneously break out between 2 girls: Johanna was one name and I’m not sure of the other. They had done dance improvs together throughout the week and had a wonderful chemistry with each other. Their movements were sudden and their feet created a steady pulse on the floor which Felix picked up on and sang to in a mic. The dance was quite compelling, and so, I was compelled to join the rhythm over on a mini-drum set across the room.

It was still fairly early in the afternoon and there was this sense that the event was sorta brewing, almost as if it hadn’t started yet, which actually was very effective in allowing the reality of the improvisation to take shape. As guests were now starting to arrive, I should probably say a little bit about it from their perspective:

The entrance was part of the piece. Each of us was to cover it in 2 hour shifts and we had some instructions. The fee was to be between 3 and 8 euros (5 was the standard default) depending on how we felt and it was up to us to make a game/performance out of it. (for example on my shift, there was a metal tray with some nuts in it. I instructed the guest to arrange them in any way he/she desired, then pretended to analyze the arrangement, and concluded based on this that the entrance fee would be 5 euros. Another guest had to bang a gong for me that was hanging in the entrance way. I listened intently to the ring and again, the fee was 5 euros. (I always chose 5)). Other instructions were for the guests to get dressed in rock star costume (there is an area in the studio with a wide selection of outrageous outfits for many events there), and that they may not freely touch the instruments and equipment but they were encouraged to either audition for one of our bands, or start their own. Generally though, they didn’t know much. Most of the rules of the game were left for them to figure out.

But I had some time before I worked the door. Taking a step back now to midafternoon-ish, I had a performance with my band “Winners and Losers” for a few minutes, fell back into open improv space at times, and soon witnessed the first guest audition, conducted by Pierre’s band, and Pierre in particular. He had the auditionee (actually, now that I recall, there were 2, so it became a game of competition for who would get the gig) do some silly rockstar things like “face your back to the audience and look cool” and eventually there was a winner who performed with the band.

Throughout the early evening I tried to stay open to the possibilities, sometimes connecting with the sounds in the room and the movements, other times retreating to my hotel room to recharge a bit and refresh my rum and coke. At various points in time I was either (to quote Tom Wolf from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) “on the bus or off the bus”. When I was on things were good, but other times I felt outside of the circle and didn’t quite know what to do with myself.

The worst of this for me came when someone wanted to audition for the band I had created in my strange and less-than-successful 3-minute rock star game from Thursday. Just to backtrack on what I avoided mentioning before, during that game I created a band which involved Andreas on electric cello on one side of the room, the “winners and losers” girl from eastern europe on percussion, 3 other girls (Marlene, Melanie, and the blonde girl whose name I can’t remember) following each other in a somewhat freely moving line while echoing each other on the syllable “guh” in successively higher pitches. I named us the “Gargantuan Ga Ga’s”. (yes, of course it was silly, but I only had a minute!). (I will say though that all of the players in it totally committed themselves to selling it. A really great bunch of artists!). Well, what I didn’t realize at the time was that that was to become a fixed band (at least in name) for the weekend with the band name posted on a big list at the entrance along with its genre description (which I tongue-in-cheek-ly described as something like “minimal, neo-country, blues”).

This particular guest wanted to play the blues on the guitar and so when the idea was put to him to audition for a band he saw “blues” in my band description. So, remembering how Pierre had conducted his band’s audition, I assumed a certain rock star persona and went to collect the band. But Marlene was unavailable (I think maybe working the bar, I don’t remember). The blonde girl was busy in another corner. Melanie, a very talented singer/dancer from France, doesn’t speak English well and I don’t think I explained clearly what we were doing, but she just wanted to dance and sing in the band, so I said “great, dance and sing away!” I grabbed another musician or 2 and began the audition. The auditionee just grabbed the guitar and started playing the blues and singing over my rockstar instructions, so I complimented him on his defiance – essential for any rock star of course. After he was done, I took center mic and sent him over to the mic stage-left, and we all played. As an improv game it was a bit rough, made worse by the fact that the auditionee I don’t think saw it as such; he just wanted to play the blues, and I think he may have thought he was auditioning for a real band! He didn’t quite get that he first had to appease my eccentric commands and pass the audition before he was in the band. Afterwards, he kinda said to me awkwardly, “I think maybe we’re just into different kinds of music”. I responded that this is just one of my projects and perhaps we could try something else later.

And the night progressed…

A lovely lady by the name of Amia, also from Copenhagen I believe, and quite hip to the nature of the event was there for a bit. We played in a band together, her on cello I think (memory is a bit fuzzy), me on guitar, and a couple of others in there as well. I believe she said she’s in town for the next couple of weeks doing an installation in Berlin. She helped me create my next rock star outfit which consisted of a kilt (made popular by Axl Rose many moons ago of course) and a white robe which was so small I couldn’t quite put my arms together.

At another point, Pipaluk prompted the groupie game and Marlene, Andreas, and I spotted someone in a flamboyant Asian outfit and threw ourselves at his feet in sycophantic praise. He took it and ran with it and it was a great moment I thought. Marlene was particularly good in that. She really throws herself completely into a role, whether it’s singing, playing, dancing, etc. At one point she was in a band with Melanie where the two of them improvised a very impassioned and sensual dance and song with each other. It worked very well. At another point, her lying down concept (first conceived of in a general improv Wed., then a 3-min. rock star scene with me on guitar and another singer all touching heads Thurs., and now a fully fledged band) band had an auditionee where we all, again lying down touching at the heads, improvised a slow, moody piece. I thought it worked beautifully.

There was also somewhere in the night, a very successful vocal improvisation led by Alexander. About 10 people or so gathered around a single microphone (basically because no others were with in range at the time) lying on our stomachs. We all started singing together and allowed the improv to take shape (a la YEM but with more people) and it did so quite nicely.

At another point in the night was a very effective performance art piece by one of the members of halfmachine whose name I don’t know, but who seemed more involved with logistical details in general over the course of the week, than in the performance. He began the scene naked (I believe) his waist covered only with tape. He had a strip of tape running down his chest and belly, and more around his head. Slowly and deliberately he began further taping up his waist, before taping a pair of scissors to his arm, all accompanied by Andreas playing very slow, melancholy lines on the electric cello, now unplugged. The performer then slowly walked across the room to the bathroom (compelling the whole group to follow) where he took whipped cream and, as if shooting out from his body, filled the sink with can after can (all the while to Andreas’ playing, Andreas having first gone into the bathroom with the cello before him. The reverberating effect of the bathroom walls made Andreas’ beautiful playing all the more striking). The performer then (all the while in character of one who seems to be in profound emotional pain) reached into the sink full of creme, cupped a mound of it in his hands and covered himself in it as if washing his whole body in it. He then took pieces of broken glass (from an accident earlier in the week which I believe he was injured in) and shaved off the creme from his body. Finally, he filled a huge bucket with water and poured it over himself. It was quite effective.

At some point a bit before midnight, I was looking around for some place to be and figured I’d see who was working the entrance and if they wanted company. The “winners and losers” girl was working and there was a nylon string in the area so we jammed a bit and improvised a nice song together. Anyway, midnight came and her shift was up, so I volunteered to take the next one. I was actually quite satisfied to be there with just the nylon string for awhile and who ever wanted to stop by. I also had fun playing with the new arrivals as I mentioned earlier.

When I went back into the space later after I was done at the door, there was a band playing while Johanna, harnessed to a rope attached to the ceiling, was swinging gracefully around performing this incredibly beautiful dance through the air. The band concluded the music but Johanna, totally in her zone, kept going. I watched for a bit, before deciding that I needed to be playing to this. So I went over to the guitar on the opposite side of the room and attempted to join, but suddenly I could not get any sound out of the amp. I checked cables, and knobs, and what have you, but minutes went by, and eventually Johanna landed, and this at nearly the exact moment I discovered a switch in the back of the amp that someone had switched to the wrong position. ::sigh::

Well, anyway, I was in the mood to play, and so I began to fade different tones in with the delay and the expression pedal, forming a kind of ethereal cushion which seemed appropriate for the space at the time. I caught Pierre who keyed into what I was doing and began dancing gracefully to the sounds (Pierre is one of another trained dancers who were there). I went into my own zone not looking but listening to the space and reacting, building up layers of different interlocking patterns (as I’ve been doing a lot lately) and sorta forgetting everything else. Some time passed (maybe 20 or 30 minutes). At some point Pipaluk came over to tell me that the police had just been by because of the noise, and to keep playing but turn it down a bit. And that’s when I first looked up to see the entire room full of people moving their bodies gracefully to the sounds. I was truly stunned. Dancers were weaving in and out of spaces between other dancers like ripples in the sea. Anyway, I made the volume lower and continued for another minute, before Dasniya (who lives in the studio), presumably unaware that Pipaluk was just there, gave me the message about the police as well and turned the volume down. The music was very low in volume at this point, and so I just decided now would be a good time to end the scene. So I faded it out. But when I did, the dancing continued… in silence. It was incredible to watch. A minute or 2 went by and still the floor was full of probably 20 people or so playing the air with their bodies, still in silence. Now, for some reason when I faded out the music I used the master volume instead of my usual method of simply reducing the feedback. What this meant was that the loop was still going. So I decided to fade it back in and continue playing. I really can’t remember how long it went on at this point (by now I had consumed nearly the entire half liter of rum I had with me) but maybe another 15-20 minutes. At some point the dance floor dwindled a bit and this seemed the perfect time to fade it out.

From then on, I felt firmly in the circle throughout the rest of the event.

Shortly after that, Dasniya conducted a stunningly beautiful suspension scene with Melanie, again to the wonderful sounds of Andreas on the electric cello.

At around 4am we all went to bed. There was nearly complete silence in the space until around 9 or 10.

Inner Rockstar Event – Part 4 (Friday)

(ETA: I decided to skip out on the salsa dancing. I really did want to go, but I wanted to keep this train of thought with the blog going, and I just won’t have any time tomorrow.)

By Friday I think I had decided I was in it for good. I didn’t quite verbalize this to anyone, because I had really been planning on using the weekend to catch up with so many things (the health insurance stuff, visa research, cleaning and organizing my room to use as a teaching studio for my lesson with Katharina and preparing a lesson plan, the myspace page, emails to friends I hadn’t been in touch with, German homework and practice, and the list goes on) and in fact I even asked Pipaluk how she felt about me coming into it during the weekend late, or leaving early, or perhaps being there at the ends but skipping away for a portion in the middle, or… (I kinda left my questions dangling which she saw through and kinda called me out on). I’m pretty sure I was fishing for a reason to commit to being there, but deep down I was already there. I won’t go into any detail here about the following, except to say that the whole concept embodied some of my deepest artistic passions for the last 13 or 14 years. Far too easy to go off on a tangent here… soooo, moving on…

So at this point, I was committed, and that made all the difference. You can’t improvise unless your committed to it! But still, I was a bit nervous. Since I hadn’t been there most of the week, I was sure there were activities I wasn’t aware of, but even more of a concern was that I hadn’t had the time to build the same level of intimacy with the group as everyone else. But anyway, I walked in at about 2pm on Friday feeling good. Felix was conducting a rhythm game whereby everyone picked a number and clapped on the one of their meter (e.g. I had 7 so I clapped every 7 beats on the one and was silent for 6 beats) all to a common assumed pulse. Once we all fell into our grooves, Felix instructed us to move around the room, and interact with each other while keeping our pattern going. It was a great exercise.

I guess this is a good opportunity for a brief word about Felix. Felix is an artist, both in practice and in spirit. Like the people he attracts to his space, he appreciates and loves the act of creation, of bringing something new and interesting into existence. He’s charismatic and welcoming. He’s also an extremely generous person and struggles to keep the studio afloat for the sake of art.

Following a lunch break we got in our circle and spent the entire afternoon just talking through the event and scoring (loosely) the structural elements. Pipuluk was the stage manager and was ultimately responsible for maintaining the structure. We decided she would use one of those long tubes of lights (whatever the heck their called – similar to what you’d wrap around a christmas tree) to pose with in order to create prompts for different activities. There were 4 (I believe):

1. Lying down flat on her back with the lights – lying down jam. AFAIK this grew out of Marlene’s lead Wed. which turned into our band’s song. If Pipaluk gave this prompt during the weekend we were to lie on our backs and play. This was perhaps my favorite general activity. It’s so nice to hear sounds coming from every corner of a large space and react to them unseen. Some really beautiful music came out of this.

2. Lying down on her side – Hotel room time and silence. Considering how much sound was happening and for how long, this was always a welcome reprieve.

3. (I think) hugging the lights or something – The groupie symbol. We would pick a random unknowing person in the room and instantly become their adoring sycophants as if they were rock mega stars.

4. holding the lights up like a mic – 3 minute rock star

I left Friday evening feeling very good, but a bit overwhelmed. At this point it was clear that I was not only NOT going to accomplish any of the things I was hoping to do over the weekend, but I still had only a short time to prep for the event. That meant first and foremost providing myself with food and drink for the weekend. (the studio provided a cash bar for alcohol (for both performer and guest alike, which was quite fair considering the space’s expenses), but no food). I got home with less than an hour till the stores closed, so I ran out to Lidl and got some veggies and chicken, ran home and made a tub of spicy chicken coconut curry with beans and rice, grabbed a bottle of rum I had with about half a liter left, threw in some cookies and snacks, straightened out my room a bit for Mon., and went to bed.

some quick notes on yesterday and today

I’m going to have to get back to the “rockstar” event at a later date I think. For now I just wanted to mention:

1. Yesterday I had a good first lesson with Katharina.

2. My lesson with Heike and kids was canceled for today and moved to Friday, before being canceled again due to family sickness. I do hope for their sake they don’t have the same bug I did a month ago.

3. I have to hop in the shower in a minute and out to meet Audrey for a salsa dancing class.

4. Tomorrow I’m meeting Marlene after German class in the afternoon to play some music and then in the evening I’m meeting Martin, a research associate at the Humboldt University who digs much of the same music as me. He responded to my “musicians seeking musicians” ad a few weeks ago.

5. Thursday I might check out the workshop at schwelle7 or possibly do something else.

6. Friday Meghan arrives!! and is here till Monday, shortly after which, I complete my 32nd year in existence.

Inner Rock Star – Part 3 (Thursday)

I decided to go back Thursday, but I didn’t get there until around 4pm. The previous day left me on a high, but, perhaps due to the psychology of expectation, or to the fact that I wasn’t quite sure what my role was nor to what degree I was actually even in the group (if at all), well, I was a little off. When I came in everyone was sorta doing stuff in their own space and I soon learned that they were building “hotel rooms” – that is to say, everyone was staking out their own little private corner of the space and making it their own personal space to retreat to when they needed a break from the group. Your hotel room was yours; others weren’t allowed in without permission. This turned out to be a very important component to the weekend event – if you were going to be involved in an event for 26 hours straight with a group of people, you really need a place to go at times when you want to escape the common area and just be.

After this came the 3-minute rock star event. One-by-one each member of the group created their own band and concept and improvised a performance. We had about a minute to choose band members and give out instructions, and then about 2 minutes to perform it. Some worked, some didn’t. Mine didn’t. But perhaps more on mine in a minute. First, again I wish I could remember some specifics about some of the ones that did work, because there were some interesting concepts performed with such passionate abandon that they yielded wonderful surprises.

Nah, no more on that. I gotta keep this thing moving since I gotta go out tonight and I’m way behind schedule already.

Moving on…

As I said, I was feeling off. 6pm rolled around and the workshop came to a close. I had a good conversation with Marlene and Melanie, and then hopped a ride with the former to the U2 to meet up nearby with Sylvie and Audrey for a short film festival that was happening all week. Only when I got the the venue and went up to the door, something inside me was telling me to go home and get some sleep instead. So I did…

Inner Rock Star – Part 2 (Wednesday)

So, as I mentioned, I get there Wed. at around 3. All around the studio people are arranged in small groups working on small performance projects. In every corner of the space (and many spots between) there are electric guitars, amps, mics, percussion instruments (mostly homemade), and sound equipment. I join up with a group, soon to be known as “Winners and Losers” with Felix on guitar (or bass, I forget), and a girl (whose name I forgot but who I believe is of Eastern Europe descent or at least speaks an Eastern European language), and we play “Let’s Get Lost”, a sorta punkish tune that they had previously worked on. It was not the sort of experimental open improvisation I was hoping for, but it was fun, and the vocalist really put herself completely into it, as did Felix.

After that, things got switched up and I ended up on bass in another band, in a different corner of the room, playing another previously worked-on tune in a fairly standard rock form (which was in many ways a good thing because truth be told, I was a little nervous playing bass). I believe this band featured the incredibly tall Alexander, the very sweet and friendly Pierre from France (but currently living in Copenhagen), and Marlene (who I made a wonderful connection with and who sorta became my “home-base” friend for the week). We tossed out some ideas (many in fact) (so many in fact that no one really knew what to do and when) and had some fun, though we didn’t really end up with a completed work. (at least not yet).

Pipaluk at some point called us into a circle in the middle of the room and we talked through some things, before breaking into an improvisational space. The only rules were: 1. take care of each other and the space (make sure dancers don’t knock into things and such e.g.) and 2. we needed to get together in our bands and play our song once at some point. Didn’t matter exactly when or how.

So the circle broke, and slowly people began moving about the room in their own ways, some dancing, some singing, some walking, and some looking for instruments to play. Marlene went right for the guitar and began playing while lying on her back. This seemed like the perfect idea at the time, so I grabbed the bass and joined in, trying to sorta react to the sounds in the room. I wasn’t really thinking of the tune we were working on at all, but before I knew it the band members were there and we were playing it. Suddenly, all of the structural details we were trying to work out sorta got discarded and we improvised our way fairly smoothly through the tune, which I think sounded pretty nice I must say.

I wish I could remember some specifics about some of the other things going on because so many of them were so interesting and beautiful, particularly from the dancers and singers. But, I see now, since I’m still only up to Wed., I’m going to have to give up on trying to capture every detail here. Moving on…

So the workshop came to an end, and then the group (I guess we were about 15ish in number) began making dinner together. I had been nipping at the bottle of Jack in the middle of the floor throughout the afternoon and I had quite a warm buzz on by this point, which Marlene noticed and affectionately commented on, a tad to my embarrassment. When dinner was ready, we assembled a long table in the middle of the space and ate delicious pasta and salad, wine, and a few other things I think, followed by Halvah for dessert.

It was a good day.