Sylvester – A Retrospective Entry

I’m dipping into my memory a bit for this entry, and possibly a few more to follow, since I’d like some record of my first New Years in Berlin and a few other topics from the last month or so.

New Years here is called “Sylvester” (not sure why). It’s conventionally celebrated with fireworks… lots and lots of fireworks… set off by nearly everyone… of all ages and sizes… in every direction… throughout the entire night, and the result is quite unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else. But I’m getting ahead of myself, because the celebration begins a week prior to New Years Eve with the end of Christmas, and by “celebration” I mean “loud bangs occurring at seemingly random intervals and increasing in frequency with each passing day”.

It’s a somewhat unsettling time. Often during this week I’d be strolling casually down the street, thinking some less-than-profound thoughts, perhaps after having just exited the train station, or turned a corner, and then BOOOM!!!! right in front of me, and often at the hands of 10 or 12 year old kid (though admittedly supervised by an adult) (In the spirit of cultural relativism I’m ignoring the temptation to follow that with a ::sarcastic roll-eyes::).

At some point around this time I met up with Peter, who I hadn’t seen since my first few weeks in Berlin before he went to the US on vacation. I met him at an upscale Steakhouse in Mitte (I think) where he was just finishing dinner, and then we walked towards Kreuzberg, stopping briefly at a much more downscale (relative to the steakhouse, and not necessarily to other Christmas Markets) Christmas Market where I ran in for a quick bratwurst. I remember walking up to the guy behind the table and, with all my confidence and conviction, and in my best German asserting “ein bratwurst bitte”. He went to the grill, came back with the big sausage on a bun, and said “that’s two euros please”.

::sigh:: – I guess I got some more work to do before I’m fooling the locals.

And that actually leads me to another thought (and further digression) I had just this passed week: I find myself often, somewhat unconsciously, intentionally stumbling with my German, just a tiny bit, when talking to a stranger (i.e. in a non-social setting, like buying something or asking for directions or something like that) in order to communicate early on that I’m not a native speaker but I’m trying my best. I reasoned this might be due to a sorta micro-level fear of success: the pressure increases exponentially once you get passed the initial lines (words, sentences, remarks, – I can’t find the right word here) of a conversation. But this is not to say that there aren’t other days, during my more confident moods, that, instead of hedging, I take the dive without fear and actually come through it OK.

So anyway, Peter and I continued on, talking about American politics (about which he is surprisingly informed and follows with much interest) and the writer’s strike and other things, and eventually we came to Murray’s (aka Olde Emeralde Isle), the Irish Pub where I met up with others some months back to watch the Rugby championship. There were a couple of guys with acoustic guitars on the small stage there singing Irish folk songs, and the atmosphere was casual, and so upon leaving I mentioned to the bartender that I was a musician and I was wondering if she was looking for such to perform there. Se responded that, yes, actually she was looking for someone to fill a night in a few weeks, and BTW she was a music journalist, and oh also there’s this musician who is playing there the upcoming Sunday, a guitar-player from NY who I might like to meet, and she asked what kind of music I play, and I simply responded “minimal” expecting this to lead on to a further inquiry where I would get an opportunity to explain a bit about how I use the loop machine function on my effects processor to layer patterns and improvise on top, and perhaps she might like to check out my myspace page (which is here, incidentally) just to get an idea of my sound, though I can tailor the format to better accommodate the expectations of the space by structuring shorter chunks of music instead of one long improvisation… but I got no such opportunity; all the info she had about what I do was the word “minimal”. And with that she pulled out her big book of bookings, flipped to the page containing the date January 14^th, and penciled in “Kenny”. I was to play from 8-11pm for 50 euros and 4 drinks – horrible pay by the standards of most any major city, but really not bad by the standards of Berlin. In any case, I was just thrilled to be working, and to finally have an opportunity to try out the improvised loop stuff I’d been thinking about and working with the passed few months.

(BTW, to all my readers, I hope you’re enjoying my post about New Years Eve in Berlin) Arlo Guthurie: “Remember Alice? It’s a song about Alice.”

So, feeling quite good about getting my first paying gig, I left with Peter. At some point during the evening we talked about New Years plans and he mentioned he was going to be doing the big official celebration at Brandenburger Tor with some friends coming in from out of town and would I like to join? This was somewhat appealing because, well, it’s my first New Years here and why not get the touristy thing out of the way so I don’t have to deal with it again (I don’t believe I’ve ever done Times Square, best as I can recall). It was equally (if not more) unappealing for the same reasons I’ve never done New Years at Times Square (best as I can recall). But as of yet I had no solid plans and so it was an option. I did have less-than-solid plans, one of which was that Marlene had mentioned a week or so prior that, though her plans as they stood were to spend with her boyfriend and friends in Hamburg, she had spent the passed few New Years having a small party at her place in Prenzlauer Berg where she had rooftop access and it was possible she would choose to do his again. But I hadn’t heard from her since. My other option was to join Claudia and Lucille in whatever they were doing which was likely going to a fairly expensive (at least for me) New Years party at a club.

I was really holding out for the Marlene option because: (1) I really couldn’t afford the club party (2) the best New Years I’ve had have been intimate parties in someone’s house with a small group of friends (3) I enjoy hanging out with Marlene and her friends (which is not to say I don’t also enjoy hanging out with Claudia or Peter).

But it wasn’t until, I think, the day before New Years that I finally got the call from Marlene that she was indeed doing cheese fondue at her place for New Years (and had I known that cheese fondue was a possibility, that would have easily been a 4^th reason to be pulling for this option. Cheese fondue is one of my 2 new favorite ways to enjoy cheese that I discovered this holiday week in Berlin, the other being raclette which I was first exposed to on Christmas Eve with Claudia’s family). And so, now I had solid plans for Sylvester 2008!

There were 5 of us at Marlene’s, including Alexander (from “Rockstar”), and most of the conversation was in German, which I really didn’t mind, and the fondue was heavenly, the food-to-be-dipped being bread, chunks of pear, and broccoli – an absolutely perfect combination. And at about 11:30 we all made our way onto the roof.

And the view from the roof was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Since we’re talking here about fireworks, let me make the obvious comparison to the 4^th in the states. Now, there’s no doubt that the 4^th of July can be quite surreal. (I have an image in my mind as I think about this of casually driving to Howie’s out in Coram on the 4^th a few years ago as colorful explosions filled the sky all around me and contemplating how bizarre the whole thing was). But the main difference, as I see it, is that there is more of a sense that it is a show on the 4th. Either it’s an official one with huge, colorful, ornate, sophisticated fireworks, or an unofficial one which is just on a much smaller scale. There are pockets where a few people are providing the show, and then many from nearby come and gather round to enjoy it. If you’re lucky enough to live on the water, or know someone who does, you can relax in the backyard and watch perhaps 4 or 5 (or more) distinct pockets of firework shows, provided likely by others who live on the water, and you can “oooh” and “ahhh” at all the beautiful colors and sorta judge each new explosion based on what you’ve seen before and so some you may remark on as being more boring than others, and likewise some are more ornate and elaborate…

But this was quite different. During Sylvester in Berlin, there’s no sense of distinct, independent “shows” of colorful, ornate fireworks; instead, (1) the “boom!” itself is generally given more weight than aesthetics and (2) it’s happening equally everywhere in every direction. It’s on every street, off of every balcony, on every rooftop, in the sky in every direction (and this is presumably happening in every district). It quite literally feels like the entire city is a war zone. And this continues on ceaselessly throughout the entire night. (I guess I should mention BTW that fireworks are actually legal for this one night in Berlin).

Thankfully, due to the power of the internet, I can actually provide some video examples.

I was really in awe standing up there, surrounded by all this (though not so much so that I couldn’t join the others in a drunken yelling of Auld Lang Syne which, since none of us knew the words, went something like this: “Shouuuld old acquaintance beeeeeee forgot da da daaaaaaa da daaa daaa daaaaaaaaaa, and should old acquaintance be forgot da da daaaaa in Auld Lang Syne!!!!!” (repeat a few times).

Eventually, we made it back inside to do some more talking and drinking. And things wound down. And the night, like the year 2007 just a few hours before, came to an end, and it was 2008, and I went home to bed.