News and Special Feelings!

Here are a couple things I have written about being here:
#1 (from the OJ board)
I am here!

I made it to Berlin with German precision. My flight arrived right on time, nobody at customs gave a good goddamn about me and Heiko and Christine picked me up, whisking me off to their happy home for a day of "Lost"-watching, lemon beer and gossip.

Then, yesterday, I moved into my new digs. Sibsi's place is just as homey and bright as I remembered it. The new additions to the home were a trio of guys from Oslo who are staying in the other bedroom. I was a little scared of them at first (they are, of course, about 9 feet tall with those Nordic cheekbones you can cut cheese with- except the Irish one who is also very tall but looks a bit like Jerry Seinfeld.)

But after drinking about 40 afternoon beers together, they seemed much less intimidating.

The big adventure of last night was when, as I was locking the door behind us on our way out for the evening, the key to the apartment just split in two. It was pretty shocking. I didn't know my own strength I guess. All that yoga must be paying off.

So we had to get a locksmith to come and get us back in (to the tune of about a hundred euros- not quite how I wanted to spend my money, but what can you do?)

Anyway, we were able to drown our sorrows pretty successfully. I stumbled home early, still couldn't get the lock to work, passed out in the hallway for about twenty minutes, then got up and somehow got the door open.

Today I slept.

Now I am going to meet Heiko for some dinner and then it's off to Hotelbar (now called MonkeyKlub) to rock the goddamn paint off the walls.

Tomorrow the transit strike begins. Guess I'll get to know Kreuzberg really well.

#2 (from a letter to my family)

Here I am in Berlin. I have had so much stuff going on that I feel a little strange even putting together a highlight reel but I want to give it a shot- for my own sake as much as anything. I'm afraid I'm forgetting things even moments after they happen.
So here is a brief run-down of my decadent ways:

I got here about two weeks ago amid the excitement of a full-blown transit strike. There are still trains running but only on certain lines. It was supposed to be only for 10 days, but the deadline has passed and now the transit workers say they will keep it up until Easter. This is pretty inconvenient but somehow it's been more or less okay. It certainly gets me walking. My apartment is in Kreuzberg, which was officially part of West Berlin, but due to some wonky wall-building is actually located to the East. The nearest train station is about the distance from 3rd street to Union Square. Not impossible, but a slight pain in the ass.

The apartment itself is very nice. A little filthy but it has wonderful high ceilings (like every single building here seems to) and gets lots of sun. Plus, the original occupant has one of the most amazing music collections around so I am having a good time listening to all those seminal indie bands that I have always had to pretend to know about.

I've played four shows so far (which is pretty good for 2 weeks) and I have 2 more before I leave. Two of them were at this same club where I have played before called Schokoladen. It's run by a very nice American lady who lives upstairs in a big old-fashioned squat-style place with her 7-year-old son named Elvis and her German boyfriend who is a brain specialist and wears highly avant-guard glasses. It's a life I dream of.

One show was in a very swanky basement bar in the center of town. There was some French band also on the bill and I had to yell at them for clapping a-rhythmically through my set. They claimed they were really into it and just had bad rhythm, but I have a feeling they were just jerks.

The other show was in the kind of club I always dreamed about when thinking of Berlin. It was on a completely deserted street in the old East Berlin and there was no sign and then you had to walk through 3 dark courtyards and through a crumbling stone doorway and then you get inside and it is totally packed with hip young Germans. We had a big Motown dance party after the show which was, of course, awesome.

When not playing shows, I have spent my time recovering from those nights and going to parties. Everyone here is so lovely and hospitable. I have only had one night when there wasn't something going on. It's such a international city that you are as likely to meet a nice English couple as anything else. I even met a guy who grew up in the next town over from the tiny village where I lived in Ireland all those years ago. You can imagine how stoked I was about that!

Mom came here for work last week for two days and we had fun running around. I brought her out here to my friends' neighborhood for some flea-market fun and coffee. She had never believed me when I told her that Berlin was really beautiful so it was nice to take her to some attractive spots. The next day she took me to the West part of the city (where I never had been) so I was able to see why she had been skeptical. It kinda makes me believe in communism that the parts of the city where there was a free-market economy look totally anonymous and dull. Over in the East, everything is small boutiques and cool old buildings. I mean, I know they weren't here twenty years ago, but there is something to be said for non-growth. They say it's changing, though, and I can see that too. I sure know what gentrification looks like. But there is still enough anarchy to keep it cool for the moment. But you should come soon.

I've had a couple good tour guides. One was a Scottish guy whom I had let stay in my place in NY last year. He took me on a gallery tour of Kreuzberg so that was fun. Didn't see too much great stuff but it was interesting just walking around.

Then there was this very serious, very German man, Peter, who has helped us with booking in the past. He was really so sweet and drove me around in his car for 6 hours to all the big tourist spots. But he's like a character out of a play: He would take me to a church\museum\whatever and I would say 'wow. that's lovely' and he would say 'no, it's crap. It's kitcsh. It should be more modern.' It was pretty hilarious.

Tonight I am staying at my friend Heiko's because I can't be bothered to walk for an hour to get home. Actually, I've spent so many nights here or with other friends that it almost seems silly to be paying rent. Especially now that this Norwegian guy has moved into the other room at my place. There were three Norwegians there when I first moved in and they were all really cute and fun. They left after two days.

So when I heard I was getting a new Norwegian, I was excited. But this guy seems neither cute nor fun. Plus, he seems to have spent the afternoon trimming his pubic hairs over the toilet seat. That seems like the kind of mess a gentleman would clean up, no? Anyway, I don't think he's a bad guy really. But it was nice having the place to myself. If I have to share, couldn't it be with some viking dreamboat?

Okay. That's enough for now. Sorry for the length. I hope you all are doing well. Tomorrow I am playing at a party in the North of town. Then mom comes back for two more days and we are going to do some cultural stuff. Then I will start to get sad about leaving. Overall, I have felt so good and happy here. I think this was one of the best ideas ever.

Labels: berlin, tour