Christmas Markets with Claudia and Lucille

Lucille, Claudia’s friend from NY, arrived a few days ago and is in town through new years, after which, Claudia will go with her back to NY for some vacation time before having to once again confront the hell that is her job. But I’m not here to talk about Claudia’s job. Rather, I just thought I’d make some brief notes on our sightseeing and Christmas market-ing (not to be confused with “christmas marketing” which is a fascinating topic all its own, though one I’m not quite fascinated enough with at this time to say anymore about) past few days (before, if I’m still awake and sober enough (getting more dubious by the minute I must confess), making one more post tonight to cover the Christmas Eve dinner and subsequent post Christmas Day goose dinner with Claudia’s family).

Hmmm… actually, I can’t think of much to say on this topic right now – walked from Alexander Platz to Brandenburger Tor, to Holocaust memorial (a chilling experience everytime, this time at night), some gluehwein in there for good measure (though ironically, gluehwine tends to lead to poorer measure, it’s just that you care less). Yeah that about covers it. Not sure if I have another post in me tonight. (Gluehwein mitt rum ist flowing through me like diesel through a truck that gets drunk and sleepy on diesel).

Last Wednesday’s Performance

The performance last week with Emanuele went along far more smoothly than it had a right to. Our ensemble consisted of 4 pieces – me and Emanuele on guitar of course, Seiji Morimoto on oscillator, Rinus on taped sounds. Me and Emanuele first met Seiji a couple of hours before the performance, and Rinus we met for the first time maybe 15 minutes before. Once we all met we took a few minutes to plan a score that would allow every combination and permutation of the 3 units (Emanuele and I were considered a single unit) to play, and we decided each section would last 4 minutes, with Katharina (I think the person that organized the event) signaling the sections. Obviously, improvisation and chance figured largely in the result, which I think was quite beautiful.

Seiji started things off soloing on the oscillator which, in this case, was a very small and portable homemade device with a tiny speaker connected with wires, which generated a synthesized tone. He could adjust the pitch by turning a screw with a small screwdriver, and he altered the timbre by doing things like putting the speaker in his mouth or moving it through the air in various ways. And so he had the floor alone for the first section. Then the guitars joined for the next. And thus we went through every C&P (each of us had a section solo, each a duet with each other, and one section with all of us).

Emanuele and I, while relying a great deal on improvisation, were pretty much the least improvised aspect of the piece. We had, in the days before, worked out a fairly solid harmonic structure along with some melodic material, and had it all charted out in front of us. Plus, we were the only unit that played uninterrupted for 4 sections (us and Seiji, us solo, us and Rinus, and everyone) so all we had to do was cycle through the form we created. But I’m glad we didn’t. We got pretty far through it, before coming to a section in B minor, where we just simultaneously seemed to feel we should break with our prearranged structure, and we did, and it freed us up to be more reactive which was a good thing.

I must say I thought the moment when the guitars joined the oscillator was a strikingly beautiful moment. Also Rinus’ taped samples were very effective. He had a whole bunch of handheld tape recorders which he played at various times and it was very musical. He ended the piece with his solo section, and we finished to much applause. I’m happy to say the room was packed with people squeezing in to where ever they could find some space, and it was wonderful to think there are this many people who can appreciate this kind of music.

After we were done with our (I think 28 minute piece) the focus moved to the adjoining room where another group was set up to go. In their setup there was a few traditional musical items – a cello, one of those small portable metallophones, a couple of keyboard-type instruments, possibly a guitar (I can’t actually remember) – and many other non-traditional musical items – a BBQ grill mounted upright on some structure which was to be bowed with the cello bow, and various other percussive and otherwise soundproducing items. The group of musicians playing these instruments, 3 in number, “Mary and the Baby Cheese” in name, were a little younger (perhaps mid 20s on average), and had an interesting look. The lead singer was a girl with absurdly huge glasses, another guy just had that geeky Jewish look that Yael seems to go for, and the other guy I can’t remember so well. The music that came out of these 3 was absolutely, mind-blowingly beautiful. Their sound was unique, emotionally driven but thoughtfully composed (very little improvisation I believe), and performed in the full spirit that such music demands. Here’s their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/maryandthebabycheeses – check ‘em out if you can! (sadly I spoke to the singer after the performance and she mentioned the group has to break up in a month because one of the members is moving back to Israel. Schade.

During their performance Katharina mentioned to me and Emanuele that afterwards why don’t the 2 of us just improvise something… and so we did. And that went very well I thought. All in all, a good night of good music.

well…

It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that maintaining this blog with any degree of regularity is getting dubious. There’s really so much to talk about every day (the good, the bad, the ugly, the interestingly mundane, the unexpected) but sometimes with regards to blogging, Ich habe kein Lust.

But here’s a very quick (10 minute or less) freewrite listing of some things in the past few days:

Played today with Emanuele (who I met through Marco from Deutsch class) for the second time, both of us on acoustic guitars. He’s Italian and speaks English well enough for us to get by. We’ve been very quickly patching together a piece for a performance tomorrow. (Details here: http://www.glogauer.net/). Not sure what to expect as we’ve been given virtually no instructions nor information about what’s expected of us, but we’ve written a pretty nice frame work within which to improvise so I think it’ll go OK. The composer who’s putting the piece together seems quite an interesting character from his myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/rinusvanalebeek) who does a lot with musique concrète, much of which is fascinating and beautiful.

Marlene’s B-day party last Friday was a very good time for all I think. It was really a wonderful group of interesting people who attended. Marlene and I provided the entertainment at a peak point in the night doing our improvisational songs project that we’ve been toying around with. We hit some wonderful moments and I think the crowd took notice. Earlier that night I was talking to a couple of guys in film. They’re working on a new one right now, a low budget film just in the beginning stages about an American 60s country rock singer (I think) and they asked if I wanted to be in the band for the movie. Of course I would, but we’ll have to see if anything comes of it, or if it was just drunk-at-a-party talk. Ya never know, but I’m still doing what I can to meet and talk to and play with, and for, as many people, artists, musicians as possible. I have some good leads and good contacts and I do feel like I’m making progress, though it gets difficult at times.

Back to the 10 minute plan (which, ironically is only a success if I fail to continue, sorta).

Yesterday, after a few hours of some always fun tech-support with the Rents (who by the way did a superb job installing drivers and making scans and emailing me the things I thought I would need) the previous night, followed by some additional time prepping for lessons, I headed out at around 7am to the auslanderbehorde (imagine some umlauts in there in a few places) building in Wedding (the opposite side of Berlin from where I live) to see about getting a residence permit/visa. It was an interesting experience: the coldness of the confusingly laid-out beaurocratic building, the wait on a long line with various internationals most of whom don’t speak the language and are probably feeling a bit lost (myself included), the old uniformed man directing those at the front of the line towards an available service rep and who does so with a certain slightly disdainful curtness that is both dehumanizing and reassuring at the same time as if to let you know that he is unconcerned about your anxieties and doesn’t care that you can’t understand the language of his country – that’s your problem – but he knows his job and he knows why you’re there, so if you just go where he points you’ll progress through the system as intended. And I did … sorta. I briefly spoke with the woman I was pointed to, in German, to find out my number on the waiting list, and the particular room where I was to do the waiting… which I did, long enough to hear at least one whole episode of car talk, one Bill Maher Real Time episode, (thank you iPod), some music, and got through some more reading of this painfully boring Terry Pratchet first discworld attempt (The Color Of Magic), (I liked ‘Small Gods’ a lot, but TCoM just isn’t there yet. It starts out pretty good, but goes downhill rather quickly), and then some. In short, the wait was anything but.

When my number was finally called, I walked in, showed my passport, received a form to be filled out, sent back out to the waiting room, filled it out, handed it in, sent back out to wait, and was soon told (of course in German) to come back after New Years with proof that I’m enrolled in a language school. (to explain that a little – I had my documentation of my 10 week course and when he asked I explained that I was taking the month off for the holidays but was continuing with the school in January.). Now there’s far far far too much to explain here about this right now since I really was hoping to watch my newly downloaded Bender’s Big Score (whoo-hoo!) and drift off to sleep, and this is a complicated topic, but suffice it to say, my language school proof should only have been a small part of the story (I probably checked the wrong box or wrote in something wrong on the form that indicated I was here in the country to study the language and so that document became the focu) but I couldn’t speak German well enough to find out and everything felt rushed, and I really had to get going anyway since I had to travel to yet another corner of Berlin for my lessons with Heike, Rafael, Maya, and Wolfgang.

It was a long day. I think it’s time for a cold beer, and some looooong awaited Futurama (while I continue to wait out this writer’s strike and go without Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Sad times we live in.)

My American Accent

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Northeast     Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak.
Philadelphia
The Inland North
The Midland
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

notes for next post

- got the polizeiliche anmeldung. I’m getting closer to be through the whole visa-extension process which is important if I want to get back into Germany after going to France.

- tickets to France in Feb!

- Martin performing in Barcelona the same week. Any way I can add a stop there onto my Paris trip??? stay tuned for the answer (but I’ll just mention that a flight on ryan air from Paris to Barcelona is only 10 euros!!!)

- keyboard shopping and eventual purchase today with Claudia while sipping delicious Gluewein

- I made a damn good pork chop dish tonight with apples and honey (since we have no molasses)

- Malene’s B-day party this coming Fri.

- Lessons out in Wannsee tomorrow

- met Heike and her friend in Kreuzberg yesterday briefly but got a good piece of cheesecake out of it

Post Deutsche Sprachschule Post

My 10-week German class ended this past Friday, launching me into a new era within my stay here in Berlin. It was a full day (Friday was), beginning with class of course, followed by lunch with Marco and Suryuggo, than jamming with Martin, and finally a sorta surprise dinner party with Claudia and Sandra.

After class Marco mentioned an Indian food restaurant that he wanted to try since it was quite well reviewed (indeed when we got there, on display was a series of trophy awards for Best Indian Food in Berlin (IIRC) 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005. The curiously absent 2003 award may have been a fluke and really wasn’t much of a concern. More interesting to us at that moment for obvious reasons, was the mysterious end to the streak after 2005. What could have changed since then? Might the chef have left and taken all of his/her secret recipes with, leaving a poor new guy/gal to chartlessly navigate his/her way into the former’s old shoes? Maybe the old chef is still there but somehow lost his edge after witnessing the metaphorical death of his metaphorical buddy who tried to metaphorically eject from a metaphorical fighter plane caught in a metaphorical flat spin, but the eject mechanism metaphorically malfunctioned? Literally! Or maybe the judges simply changed? It is a mystery that must remain so for now at least. Regardless, the food was quite good.)

I was glad that Suryuggo from the class came along as well. Here from Korea, she seems intelligent and interesting and, as one of the best students in the class (along with Marco), she has effectively helped to make me (and presumably Cynthia) feel dumber.

It’s very interesting for me to reflect on the social interactions I’ve had with the others in the class and how they’ve seemed to very clearly progress in terms of cultural proximity. On the very first day of class I walked in, slightly late and consequently even more confused and lost than I otherwise might be, and immediately connected with the only other native english speaker in the class (i.e. Cynthia). Within the first few days to a few weeks I had broken the ice with most of the Europeans in the class, but still felt pretty distant from the Asian girls (there were 3 to begin with, but 2 at the end). Language of course plays a big role in all of this, the clearest indication of which is the fact that Pavel from Poland who spoke no English at all was particularly difficult to connect with, as was the girl from Turkey (whose name I know but can’t recall at this moment). And none of this is from a lack of desire. I believe most of us wanted to make connections across cultures and languages. Most, if not all of us harbor feelings of inquisitiveness, and discovery, and fascination with culture and the world at large, and people. It’s what has seemed to drive a lot of us to be there in the first place.

So Marco, Suryuggo, and I sat to enjoy a nice Indian lunch together and talk about music, food, culture, real estate prices in Korea (you wouldn’t believe me if I told you; to be honest I’m not even sure I believe me, though both Marco and I went back and forth with Suryuggo a few times to make sure an extra zero wasn’t getting lost somewhere in the translation), and translation of the menu. We were soon joined by a couple of Marco’s friends, also from Italy (whom I actually met some time back at the crepes party), one of which is a guitar player. He and I got to talking and we’re going to try and get together to see if we can do something in the near future.

I had to cut things slightly short and skip out to meet Martin by 3. Jamming with Martin was a lot of fun and went pretty well I think for a first jam. We did some long freeform improvisations, as well as a jazz chart or 2, and then started to work on some Reich. I showed him some patterns from Electric Counterpoint and we talked about doing an arrangement for 2 electric guitars (which, with a good enough loop station can (I believe) absolutely be done). We also worked on piano phase which he had the score for.

After that I came home (Martin actually lives on my same street a few blocks away) to get ready to go to Sandra’s with Claudia for a dinner party, only I soon learned there was a change of plans – instead, Sandra was coming over and I was cooking. And so I did… horribly, but we had enough champagne and wine to get us through it all… and then some. It was a good night, and a good day overall, but I can’t keep my eyes open much longer so I’ll have to cut the details short here.

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.