Toco und TRESOR (again)

Tocotronic totally rocked my world. I didn't think they would be so good live, but they so were. Better than Neubauten, albeit in a completely different style. Highlight of the night : Aber hier leben, nein danke and Sag alles ab. They tore the house down. They opened with Eure Liebe tötet mich, which is my fave off the last album. Disappointed they didn't play Gegen den Strich and Imitationen, but what they did play, was fucking phenomenal!!!

Joined up with friends afterwards in the super long queue to Watergate. We then all got into cabs and went to TRESOR, wo gibt es keine Linie. I think it's the perfect place to go, because when you walk down that long hallway into the basement, and all you can hear is the deafening bass, you know you're in Berlin. I really love this place, particularly since they don't make a fuss at the door :-)

Berlin, endlich zu Hause.

Neubauten

Blixa got old and fat. But he also got a lot funnier.

I'd cut off an arm to join this band. Seriously. Mind totally blown.

My new baby, a burlesque show and the Russian Mafia.

My new baby. She comes from the Czech Republic and we're about the same age :-) She sounds amazing and feels great. Bought a small but more than capable amp and I look forward to start "the band", which we've yet to do. We're waiting on Judith to tell us what she wants or thinks she can sing. Did I mention she did 10 yrs of opera singing? And there's also Amelie who's studying to become and opera singer. Wow, lots of artists around me.

I found a cheap drum set for Romain and we're going to check it out tomorrow. It belongs to the guy at the music shop where I bought my guitar. His name is Stevo, really cool dude, easy going, not pretentious at all, which is what I was looking for. His store is Central Music in Kreuzberg, on Oranienstraße. Totally worth it. For those who are looking ;-)

On a more sour note, we got refused entry at Berghain last night. I was so pissed. I told the doorman to fuck off. I vow that I will return and this time get in, and then proceed to pee in every corner, then leave. If I still feel that strongly about it in a couple of days. Like my friend Ivan says : if they don't have time for me, I don't have time for them. It's a bit how I feel right now. But I don't like to be defeated.

Tonight is Einstürzende Neubauten, so excited. Will go and meet up with some friends before in the Tiergarten. It's such a nice day today, first in like a week. And we're due for another 2 days of rain and cold. I'll admit it, it's cold here. Hadn't realized they get the cold siberian winds. Mind you, shouldn't be any different than an Arctic wind blowing over Alberta.

Last night we went to a Burlesque show at my new favorite bar, CCCP. I believe it's run by the Russian Mafia (or so I like to think). The show was so-so and everyone that came ( I think there was 8 of us )  had no idea what a Burlesque show meant. (For those who don't know, a burlesque show is like a stripper show, but they don't get completely naked and it's all about costumes and fantasies. Girls are typically heavily tatooed and not your typical Playboy bunny. Think Suicide Girls without showing their nipples).

I just assumed everyone knew what it was. Judith was seriously offended, I felt bad. I also felt bad for the guys, cause the girls on stage looked a lot like dudes (it didn't help that there were two trannies walking around the bar before the show). Suffice to say that the guys all felt a bit awkward and Romain kept saying "there's something weird about this place". I think it rocks. Laura, our new friend from England said it looked exactly how she imagined a Berlin bar to look like. Which is soooo true. Louis XIV sofas, with red velvet lamps, soviet machine guns on the walls, gold skull light fixtures and stuffed animals on the tables (a badger even had a cigarette in his mouth!). You have to see it to believe it. And the girl at the door, Bettina, who is a French mulatto girl could've been cast as Josephine Baker. She's a talent agent/scout and is going to hook up Romain with some work here in Berlin. I kid you not. This has been kinda what my life's been like for the last 2 weeks, somewhat of a very freaky Lynchian movie. I wonder why this kinda stuff doesn't exist or doesn't happen back home?

I'm almost at the 1 month mark and now it's starting to go too fast. I kinda don't want this to end, as I'm getting closer to friends, and no closer to figuring out why I'm here. I also think I'm starting to crush hard on a girl, which is totally messing me up ...

My new favorite word and linguistic ramblings

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a sponge when it comes to languages and accents. Therefore, as most of my friends here in Berlin are French, I've almost completely lost my Quebecois accent and have shifted to a more Parisian-type. So I say things like "putain" a lot instead of "fuck", and "énorme" which equates to "massive" and "major" in British English (we don't really use these in North America). As well, as a lot of our peripheral friends come from other countries of which we do not speak the language, my English is becoming increasingly broken, so as to make it easier for the listener to understand (or so I think). So I'm saying things like "How long you stay at the school, here?" or "How long do you stay in Berlin?". Ot the funniest is that I've picked up a French accent in English, saying sings like "ze School".

I am such ..... a freak.

In terms of my German, it's really progressing, which is such a relief, as I thought I'd be in Kindergarten forever. So I have a new favorite word, which is "genau", meaning "correct". So when someone is talking, and you agree with them, you say "genau" as a way of acknowledging what they are saying. However, Berliners use it to excess. So we (our clique) have started using it as a running gag, for just about anything. I tried to explain to my European friends that it's kinda like saying "that's what she said", but that just flew waaaaaayyyyy over their heads. True, without having seen "The Office", that's a hard one to appreciate.

So tonight was Stammtisch again (like every Monday) so we met a new crop of students. Looks like there's a new guy called Simone (pronounced Simoné) from Italy who will be joining us. He better learn French fast, otherwise it'll be boring for him. He's here for 2 months, so he'll join the clique.

Oh, and I got a pre-paid cell phone, which only works in for calls in Germany. That sucks, because some of my friends have a French number, so I can only text them, which is ok. I'm just using it as a way of coordinating where we meet next. In case anyone would care to call me on it (I'd prefer to use Skype or email, but sometimes, a quick hello is nice to get :-) its +49.1577.267.3692

Alright, bed time, school at 9 am in the morning.

Street Art und Les Copains

Ok, so Berlin is THE grafiti capital of the world I would say. Basically, they change on a daily basis. I live across from a vacant field in old West Berlin that used to be a bit of a No Man's land, by the wall. In any case, on a daily basis, I get to see Berliner Street Artists in action.

So the "bear" wasn't there yesterday. And I'm hoping he'll stick around for a while, but most likely, someone will paint over it soon enough. I swear to God, Kreuzberg reeks of spray paint. But it's so cool, to see this change on a daily basis. There is so much creativity and it's kinda great that Berlin let's it happen.

On a different subject, as I may have mentionned before, I've made some friends, and the core group is Francophones, but to that, we've made some German friends. So, let me introduce them a little bit.

The core:

Me.
Adrien. And he often brings Julna, who's from Lebanon. Adrien and I have very deep and complex conversations.
Romain. And his friend Amelie, who is West Berliner. We're becoming fast friends. I kinda have a crush on both ...
Judith and Jan. Jan is such a nice guy, and Judith is the ultimate French girl. I absolutely love her.

Then, there's Gülçin, who's Turkish, but was born and raised here. She tells it like it is. I also absolutely love her. She's so funny and speaks with a Brooklyn accent.

Then, there are Jan's friends, Max und Christian. Christian wants to take me to his village to show me what rural Germany is. He's from Brandenburg. No, not the state, but the village. As in Branderburger Tor (The Gate to Brandenburg). It used to be a very important place in the countryside.

And Max insisted we find a nightclub to go dancing. And so we did. Til 5 am. I know, early for Berlin.

And beyond that, there have been people in my classes. Some have already gone, but some will be here for a while. There's Dai, from Vancouver. He's my connection home. Nice guy, very committed to learning the language. Always offering a word of encouragement.

Then, there was Berglind, my beauty from Iceland. She is such a character. She left the school to go back and work at Icelandair, but she'll be back in a few weeks. Hopefully she'll stop in to say Go∂an Daginn.

So, that's it. Tomorrow we sleep, but the plan is to meet at White Trash Fast Food for dinner and whatever. We'll see. Julna wants to go "en boîte". On Sunday, I'm thinking of going to Potsdam, the former royal residence. It's but an S-Bahn ride away. I also have to get a "handy". I'll have to figure that out. And also get instruments. We're starting a band. Watch out Berlin.

Oh, and my German's coming along in strides. Of course, I make lots of grammatical errors, but Amelie told me that in Berlin, most people don't care. I keep getting corrected, however, for using the "formal" Sie (plural form of "you", used for formal situations or old people. They drill it into you, as the best way to speak in German). Jan, in particular, corrects me about that. Ich muss "ihr" benützen. I think that's so toll. Super porno.

Porno = Cool, Festival of Lights and Einstürzende Neubauten.

So, I've heard a few times in Berlin, people talking and ending a conversation or a sentence with "das ist sehr porno". Which I translated as "that's very porno", thinking they're talking about something erotic or twisted. No, apparently, in Berlin, "porno" means "cool". So I'm getting used to hearing that and not have my mind in the gutter!!!

In other news, my German courses are coming along, I'm revisiting stuff I learned in University and it's finally making sense. What a difference having to pay for school makes! Also the fact that I'm 35 and not 18, helps. I'm studying hard and making good progress. It's been good to interact with people and I'm starting to make friends. Unfortunately, I've gravitated towards the French crowd, and so we're not practicing our German all that much :-( However, tonight there's a group activity, which should be cool. The Christmas season starts tonight (no Thanksgiving, no Halloween, might as well). Berlin has something called "Festival of Lights", which as you can imagine is all about decorating houses and buildings with tons of Xmas lights, but also with spotlights and lasers! Think Zoolights meets a Rave. So we're all going around and walking through the city centre (Mitte) and look at these lights and see the sights at the same time.

After that, we're going to Winery, where you pay 1 euro to get in, they hand you a glass and you try a many different wines as you'd like, and then at the end, pay what you think what you had is worth.  So if it's all crap, then you could technically, not give them anything. But I don't think that's the point. So, the Frenchies have decided to try that out. I'll tag along, but won't go to hard at it, as I'm nursing a cold. But it'll be fun to hang out with people.

Today we had lunch and discussions were had about forming a band. So now I need to find a guitar. So I will hunt for that over the weekend. We'll see how that goes. So far we have a singer, a drummer, a guy who says he plays a mean tambourine and me, on guitar. This should be sehr interessant.

And on the domestic front, I am without a bathtub and shower since yesterday. They had to remove the tub to get to the pipes. They put the tub back in, but did no caulking and broke all the tiles around it. I've had no notice from the management company of when they will come and complete the work. I have a sneaky suspicion that I will have to figure out how to ask "Where is the closest Home Depot?". Luckily, this is something I can actually do. I'll have to run it by the owner first though. This was stressing me out yesterday, but today I've decided to just roll with it.

That's it. I wish I had a TV, but it's prolly for the best that I don't.

Oh, and I'm going to see 2 concerts this month. On Oct. 23 I'm going to see Tocotronic, one of my favorite German bands, soooooo excited. And on Oct. 29, I'm seeing Berlin legends Einstürzende Neubauten, for their 30th anniversary concert. These guys are the fathers of Industrial Music. I know most (all) of you have never heard of these guys, but think Nine Inch Nails, but even harder, weirder and darker. For example, some of their songs use jackhammers as the rhythm section, whereas the guitar parts would be played by saws on a piece of metal. I've seen them before in Montreal, and the highlight was one of the guys dumping buckets of rocks on a steel slide as part of the beat. I know, not quite a night at the opera, but if you know me, it's completely up my alley.

So there, that's what I'm up to.

Le vrai bonheur

Bon, là j'écris en français, parce que c'est pertinent. Il n'y a pas beaucoup de chansons qui me font pleurer, en fait, je ne crois pas qu'il y en ait eu beaucoup auparavant, mais je dois faire mention d'une chanson en particulier. C'est "Le vrai bonheur" de Karkwa. Si un jour, j'arrive à aimer quelqu'un au point de m'inspirer à écrire quelque chose d'aussi beau, d'aussi touchant, d'aussi sincère que cette chanson, j'espère ne jamais échapper ce vrai bonheur. Autant la musique, que les paroles, me touchent au plus profond de mon être. Merci à Karkwa de me ramener dans cet endroit de pureté, d'amour honnête, qu'il ne m'est pas arrivé de vivre depuis longtemps.

Stammtisch

So Stammtisch is a sort of gathering, for newbies at the school I go to. It's 2 am, just got home and I have class at 9 am. Ich werde am gestern sehr müde gewesen. Aber, das ist sehr nett.

The land of no Thanksgiving

No decorations. No day off. No Turkey smells (although I am vegetarian, I used to eat these things and remember that the smell did make me hungry). Yet, still thankful for all the things and people in my life. Tonight, in lieu, I am going to a meet and greet at my language school to - hopefully - improve my German. Or at least interact with other human beings who speak a language I can understand. This morning, for some reason, all Frenchies wound up in the same area. This might happen again. Oh well. Happy gobble-gobble, or as I call it, Yam day.

Gimme 2 weeks and I'll own this town

It's 7:21 am, just got back from my first "night out" in Berlin. Went to TRESOR to see/hear Gus Gus. Got there at 1 am, figuring that was late enough. Not quite. Their set didn't start 'til 4:30 am. Next time, 3 am seems like an appropriate hour.

TRESOR is in an old Power Station, with several levels, with a proper bar on the 1st floor, and something that looks more like a dungeon in the basement. Obviously, the best music was in the basement. I'll be picking out shards of glass from the soles of my shoes for days to come.

Funnily enough, at the start, I was amazed at how bad German boys dance. And my second thought was "they can't all be straight!!". In any case, didn't want to do anything to piss anyone off, so stuck to my own (I'm just dancing on my own ...). The music got progressively better and so did their dancing.

Gus Gus fucking slayed. As opposed to the resident DJs, who stuck to typical minimal Berlin techno, Gus Gus infused a bit of funk and deep house into their set, which was amazing. They only played one track of theirs, albeit heavily remixed (Hateful).

Lowlight of the evening: the doormen didn't even want to look at my ID, they just hushered me in :-(
Highlight of the evening: the big bruiser that was checking me out, despite the chicks dancing with him. He unfortunately took off like a bat out of hell once he realized what he was doing. Too bad, his loss.

Walking home at dawn is always an interesting thing. I saw a cute little bunny who was trying to hide from me in the weeds on the side of the road. Poor thing, stuck in this concrete city. Other creatures of the night I could've done without: the gigantic cockroaches on the sidewalk, near a squat, and the rats chasing each other at the U-Bahn station. Berlin is anything but clean.

Now that I've done the baptism by fire thing, I'm ready to tackle the Mecca of nightclubs: Friedrichshain's notorious Berghain, which apparently has the toughest door policy in the world. We'll see. Gimme 2 weeks and I'll fucking own this city.

Stockholm

Just got back from Stockholm. Check out the pics below.

The Royal Palace, in Gamla Stan (old town)

Storkyrkan (Stockholm Cathedral) in Gamla Stan.

Medieval houses on Stortorget, Gamla Stan.

One of the beautiful old streets of Old Town. Some of these are barely 15 feet wide.

Norrport, the Northern Gate that leads to Old Town. This is part of the Swedish Goverment Building, the Rijkdags. On the north side, is the neighbourhood of Norrmalm, and the pedestrian street Drottningsgatan (Queen's Gate).

Drottningsgatan, this morning. Further up this street is Central Stockholm, Sergels Torg.

Sergels Torg. Central Stockholm.

The Royal Theatre.

Inner Harbour Scene. Stockholm is built on 14 different islands, on the north and south shores of Lake Mälaran.

 Stockholm is very much a mix of new and old constructions. Some of the newer buildings are way out there. In the forefront, the north entrance of the main Train Station.

This was my hotel, by the main train Terminal. This was about the only ugly part of Stockholm.

None of my pictures render the city well, it was overcast and somehow my camera wasn't able to render the colours properly. I went to Old Town 3 times, just wandering the old cobblestone streets.

What the pictures don't render is the amazing shopping. Not only was there great shopping in Old Town, but on Drottningsgatan, and then in Östermalm, all the upscale shopping is incredible. Around every corner there seemed to be a little square, with stands selling fruits and vegetables, and fresh flowers (yes in October, no less!!!).

Oh, and I thought Paris was hard to beat when it came to fashion. I might as well have been wearing a potato sack. I had the be careful to not get cut by the women's cheekbones as I walked by. Holy genetic gene pool jackpot.

Needless to say, Stockholm, I'll be back (with better clothes and more money!!!!).

Routine

Yesterday: laundry.
Today: shopping.
Tomorrow: Stockholm.

don't go, say you'll stay, spend a lazy Sunday ...

This is Schloss Charlottenburg, built by first Queen of the Prussian Empire, Sophie Charlotte (ok, she prolly didn't build it, but had her minions do it for her ;-P), in the late 17th Century. She was of the Hohenzollern Dynasty. In any case. Much smaller, but as beautiful as Versailles, with wayyyyyy less tourists :-) It has magnificent French-style gardens in the back, of Baroque influence. I like visiting these palaces, they feel so cozy and I just feel at home :-) This is the only remaining aristocratic Palace in Berlin, the Schloss Berlin or Stadtschloss having been demolished during the DDR days. This palace here was severely damaged during WWII (like almost everywhere else in Berlin) but has been magnificently restored.

An interesting aspect of this Palace, which lies to the west of old Berlin, is that the Queen didn't like to take carriages through the dusty roads leading to Berlin, so at the end of her gardens, the river Spree has been modified, in order to offer her a docking area, so she could take a boat into town. Now, that's my kind of Queen!!!

Oh,  and in case you were wondering who the hell she was, she was the sister of Georges I of England.

And this is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Built in late 19th Century, seriously damaged in 1943, they built a new church with a tower adjacent to it in the late 50's/early 60's. I didn't go in as it was closed, but apparently they are finally going to start to restore the spire of the old church. This is one of those things, you have to see for yourself. It's located at the end of Kurfürstendamm, close to Banhoff Zoo and Europa Centre. This used to be the heart of West Berlin. Now, after re-unification, this area has lost some of it's prestige and importance to other locales such as Friedrichstraße, Unter den Linden and Alexanderplatz.

It's funny, Charlottenburg Palace, Ku' Damm, Bhf Zoo and this, are all within walking distance from each other, and another 5 minutes from Nollendrofplatz, the old Gay district from the 20-30's (life is a Cabaret, ol' chum). This is the first time that I walked around and that I finally understood how all of these things connect together, in terms of geography. It's hard to get a sense when taking the maze of U-bahn's that criss-cross this city.

I'm just now starting to get a sense of where I am and how everything relates to each other, which is freaking cool. I still live in the best neighbourhood though, hands down. Like, tonight, there might be a riot in the next street over. Just across from them is where I got pizza for dinner.

Sperm pipeline

No, this is not a post about my nightly escapades in Gay ol' Berlin. This is street art on the water pipe lines in the former DDR. These pics were taken along Karl-Marx-Allee in Friedrichshain, but I've also seen these pipes in Treptow. Apparently, these are the water lines. No wonder you can't get any tap water in this town! LOL I was quite speechless. I wonder what "sperm" means in German, "good for you"? Oh, I could go on ....

Touristy things

"Miteinander, nicht gegeneinander", exhibit on the struggles of East Germans to break free from Communist rule, which led to re-unification. At Alexanderplatz.

World clock at Alexanderplatz. It's got all 24 Time Zones. For the Mountain Time Zone, they have Denver and Edmonton!!! What?!?!? No Calgary. On a positive note, for the Eastern Time Zone, they have Montreal and not Toronto. Haha! Take that TO!

Berliner Dom. I believe this was seriously damaged during WWII, but beautifully restored.

The Old National Gallery. This was built by Friedrich Wilhelm the Great, King of Prussia.

Checkpoint Charlie, corner Friedrichstraße und Zimmerstraße. Biggest tourist trap in Berlin, after the Fersehturm. Appreciate these pictures, I am never setting foot on Friedrichstraße again if I can help it. Busy, full of rich bitches, as it's now "the" shopping street. Sorry Ku'damm.

Other than that, I've registered for German lessons. I figured I needed to, as my German is horrible, and well, I'm not meeting anyone walking around on my own with my iPod. Hopefully, it will make me feel a bit more integrated, 'cause right now, I really feel like a tourist.