Monday 31 May 2010

Last night I dreamt that firstly I was on a basket ball court and I could dribble really well (even though I've never played basket ball in my life) but I couldn't get the ball in the hoop at all (lol) then it fast forwarded to being sat in an I.T. room at a school and i was sat next to the kid from Let the right one in, that swedish vampire film (which is excellent btw) and as far as I can remember he was looking at 'naughty things' on the internet but bullied me into not telling on him then the dream kind of changed and I was at war going through a swamp but the swamp was in somebody's back garden in Warrington and then we had to eat river-rats for tea and then I had to make a promo video for being a swamp kid.

Sunday 30 May 2010

That's not art!!! That's just shit!!!

I had such a good day on Friday y'know. I got up early (didn't need to wake up until 7am but my body refused to believe this and insisted we get up at 4.30am) and went down to Neukolln to help the incredibly lovely and super-talented James Slater shoot a video with The Go! Team. We were shooting it in what was basically someone's bedroom - he'd just shoved all of his possessions into one end of the room and threw a green screen up at the other. It was pretty cool though and it done the trick for sure. The band only had a few hours spare to do it all in as they were actually en route to Leipzig to play a festival that night. I liked the guys from The Go! Team a lot, they were all dead sound people.

I liked Neukolln a lot too, the rent is cheap and it's a dead lively place so I think that me and Edda are going to look to move there at the end of August when our contract is up here.

Later on that day myself and Edda shared a bottle of wine and some delicious Vietnamese tucker on Schoenhauser Allee before heading home briefly to glug off some cheaper white wine before heading out again. Whilst I was at home glugging cheaper white wine I listened to Because by The Beatles from their album Abbey Road over and over again.

We'd been invited to the opening if this art gallery that night by a Matt and Nicole, a really nice and funny and interesting couple from Canadia land, so we headed on over to it. The building itself was absolutely incredible. I think it was an old GDR office building that had been renovated. The art inside the building was a bit beyond me. I just didn't understand it that much. It was just a collection of stuff without any story or explaination. And the stuff wasn't that extraordinary either. it was just a collection of dead normal stuff and some paintings that were quite surreal of men with beards that birds and crazy shit lived in. Anyway, the most remarkable thing about the exhibition was the beer that they sold there. Actually, not so much the beer but the vessel it arrived in. It was shaped like an ordinary bottle but it was metal and it was the lightest metal I've ever picked up. I nearly put a hole in the ceiling when I picked it up it was that light. Mad. I met a guy in the toilets that looked like Karl Marx if Karl Marx had actually been a lumberjack.
After the exhibition we travelled back south to Neukolln to go to a party in a clothes shop. There were no clothes in it yet though...the people had just took over the lease and it was a kind of 'Hooray!' party. I was totally pissed by the time I arrived here though so my conversational output was slim to none and the slim bits were just noises but I do remember they were projecting dead weird soft-core pictures onto the wall. We stayed for a while and had an ironic dance or two (they all thought it was ironic, I just thought it was boss!) then I decided that if I'd have stayed any longer I would have puked upon somebody so we left. We got outside and it was definitely the next day...I think it was 7am or something but the shop had the shutters down the whole time so I was conned into thinking it was still dark outside. What a silly-billy! We had an 11 minute wait for the U-Train so I passed this time by chasing a mouse.

Yesterday was a write-off although I did make a massive and delicious lasagne and started to watch The Wire from the beginning. Today I went for a game of football with a different group of people from who I've normally been playing with. It was fun and it was on a really amazing all weather pitch on Mauer Park. Nearly everyone was German so it was mad playing alongside people and not being able to communicate directly with them. They all sounded so aggressive when they were shouting at each other and me but I ended up picking up some Deutsch words for things like 'Corner!' and 'Throw in' and 'Down the line' but I still couldn't figure out 'ON ME BONCE! ON ME BONCE!!' so I'll work on that for next week.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Hello Kitten

Another addition to my top 20. I've got a feeling that this will probably just go on forever and ever. It's dead sunny outside and I've done a cv and a DJ compilation CD so I'm not going to get a wash, get dressed and go out and see some more of Berlin. I'll take some photographs too.

Low - Over The Ocean
Elliot Smith - Waltz no.2 (xo)
The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?
Elbow - Powder Blue
The Wedding Present - Spangle
Cinerama - Wow
Alton Ellis - I'm Still in love with you
LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
Talking Heads - Pulled Up
Billy Bragg - Sexuality
Hefner - Hello Kitten

Tuesday 25 May 2010

vanishing mind

I think I'm losing my mind. Literally! I've found that recently I've just not been able to talk to people about anything. I'm sure I can remember once, not so long ago, being at least vaguely interesting? Maybe a little but funny to some people? I don't know but whatever the weather right now I can't talk to anyone about anything apart from the most mundane of topics. 'Yeah, it is a bit windy today, I suppose.' Jesus Christ what is the matter with me? I haven't written any decent lyrics for ages either and the two are obviously linked. The link being I use my mind for both interesting conversation and to write lyrics and I happen to have lost my mind so the two are fucked. What can I do to get it back. I consistently read and I have a girlfriend who is into boss film so I watch tons of interesting movies. I like music, lots so I listen to lots of interesting music. What can I do to make my mind come back please? Electric shock therapy? Regression therapy? Mind drugs? FUCK!
Last Thursday Edda and I went to the Cinema at Potsdamer Platz. We bought tickets to watch the mystery screening which is basically what is sounds like....you don't know what the film is going to be but it's a film that hasn't been released yet. The first time we went we got to watch a film called The Crazies which was a truly crap film. Last Thursday we were kind of hoping for something a bit light hearted and maybe even funny as the last week has been a bit tough. The trailers ended and everybody in the sold out kino fell silent in anticipation of the film which was about to start...'a BBC Production'...'Yesssssssss, it's Four Lions' I thought. It wasn't. Infact it was a film called Five Minutes of Heaven which is a film about the troubles in Northern Ireland starring...James Nesbitt! Of course it did. It was a film about a young boy who witnessed his brother getting killed by a masked gunman.

I think my mouth is falling apart. I should have sorted this out whilst I was on the dole back home. This is probably going to esculate into something hideous and I'll have to go to a backstreet dentist somewhere and get half my mouth ripped out.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Low - Over The Ocean
Elliot Smith - Waltz no.2 (xo)
The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?
Elbow - Powder Blue
The Wedding Present - Spangle
Cinerama - Wow
Alton Ellis - I'm Still in love with you
LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
Talking Heads - Pulled Up
Billy Bragg - Sexuality

Been a bit of a strange week this week. Started to feel dead lonely at times...that job I was on about kind of fell through. Well, it still might come back but right now it's still off. That was a bit of a setback but you know, fuck it and howl like a wolf and all that. I was going to busk and I still might but to be totally honest, the thought of doing it alone makes me feel like throwing up. I've done it before and I've done it here too but it's always been with a few of us and it's easier to have a laugh and enjoy it more and not feel like a total dickhead when there are a few of you. I will build up to it though. Might have my first DJ gig too but it's not definite yet.

Monday 10 May 2010

I've got something to put in you.

I said goodbye to my final mate visitor last night so now I'm on an absolute mission to get cracking on things. Firstly I need to find some work, this has become a matter of urgency now as enjoying the company of my mates has also meant flunking loads of cash on things like tequila and kebabs. So this is first on the list. But to do this I need to register as a resident of Berlin and get a tax code and what have you. I've heard it's a right nightmare to do so I'm gonna do that on Friday with Edda. Wow, there's a guy sat behind me in this internet cafe who dead randomly keeps laughing his dick out in dead maniacal bursts of super loud laughter. Everytime he does it he scares the shit out of me.
So yeah, job and registration first then I really want to carry on working on new material for the next 28 Costumes album. I've got loads of half baked ideas and demos on garage band so im going to go through them and sort the chuff from the chaff and start work.
Also, I've got a new idea for a project I want to do while I'm over here...It's gonna be called Black Lodge and has a lot to do with Twin Peaks. I'll get cracking on it and keep you in the loop.

So yeah, Tony came last week and we had approx. 49 laughs all in all. It wasa great to see him of course and it was also great to work on some songs out on the balcony together and get some rough demos done. We mostly drunk, obviously. Have I wrote about this? I can't remember. Anyway, Jules came on Tony's last night and we had a really good night in a bar called Schwarz Sauer, which we've actually been going in quite a bit. I don't remember alot of the evening right now, but I defo remember Jules having a full pint poured over him by a German man, Tony Falling asleep in the ladies bog and then the walk home consisting of me and Tone doing the chicken dances from Arrested Development and Jules having a Pineapple on his head. So obviously we clocked up the laugh-o-meter to almost breaking point that night.

I slept in the next day and missed tony leaving but he left behind a little note book. I wouldn't have normally opened it incase it was his diary or something but he made a point of leaving a bit of paper that said open on it so i did...it was a book filled with tons of notes from loads of mates saying goodbye and all that type of stuff and it had even been to London because there were scribbles from some of my chums down there too which was all just lovely...I've re-read it since and it's just amazing. Some proper nice mates out there. Also though, some proper nice strangers too. 'Hi I don't know who you are but my mate said sign it so i hope you have fun'. Awwww.

So it was just me and Jules and we spent alot of the time just wondering around and eating and drinking and getting lost and finding ourselves again and we went to watch Trans AM which was just incredible...really mind blowing stuff. It was in Bang Bang club. Jules and I had the idea to try to start a 'Liquidation Berlin' so we spent some time going from club to club looking for a potential venue to do it in. We went to a few but one that we went in with Geoff (Paul) once he arrived on Thursday really stood out. We'd been recommended the place by two friends, Sophie and Marcel who have been great in helping us try and do it. As we went in they wanted 8 euros from us so I suggested I go in alone and have a look around and see if it was worth us all going in. I popped in and had a good walk around and decided that the place was incredible and well worth the attention of my two friends. I totally didn't clock that there were no girls in there at all and all the guys were kissing each other. Not really that extreme but it did turn out to be a fairly exclusive gay night. Yay! Well, we certainly had a laugh and the venue is definitely somewhere to seriously consider.

Jules' last night and we all went to White Trash for burgers and Fondu which was absolutely incredible all round. Edda was back in Berlin by this point so it was splendid to have her out too for a change. We headed over to 8mm bar and met up with Trev from Ezra bang and Hot Machine who ended up knowing some guys that Edda knows who ended up being with a guy who lived on Hartington Road L8...Crrrrrrrrrazy hey? Afterwards we ended up going the Magnet on my charge but I think we picked possibly the worst night to go. It was like, some kind of ironic bad taste party but it was difficult to differentiate from those who were actually being ironic and those who were just cunts.

The next afternoon Jules left and just like when Tony left, I slept through it all. In fact, I think we slept for around 13 hours that night\day. We grabbed some awesome pizza in Kreuzberg that night and then went to watch Kick Ass which I can honestly say gave me 2 of the most funnest hours of my life.

Sunday was Geoff's last day. We went to Maeur Park and saw around 2,000 people sat on a hill watching whatever was happening at the bottom of the hill. Turns out it's just karaoke! Amazing! It was a spectacle in itself to see loads of people getting pissed on asunday afternoon and getting up and having a go at murdering their favourite songs in front of a massive, massive crowd! It was boss! I'm defo going back to get up and sing. Mos. Def.

I'm nearly two-thirds of the way through reading The Corner and it's proper.
Bye Bye x x

Sunday 2 May 2010

Quiet Riot

Our Tony came to visit on Thursday and it's been thoroughly fucking good fun so far. So long as we've been awake we've been drinking. Drinking and eating fast food. On the first night we started by watching the Liverpool game in a bar called FC Magnet and we ate a bratwurst. A couple of hours later en route to another bar, a bar that we've been visiting alot called Scwauerz Sauer (I think. I should know really given the amount of time we've spent in there) we stopped off for some more meat at a fancy burger bar. When the burger arrived though it was anything but meaty...we'd ordered some absolutely un-meaty burger which was basically a bread burger so far as we could see. Then, a few more hours later (it was possibly 7am so it could count as breakfast) we stopped off again and ate a chicken kebab. That's really disgusting isn't it? 3 different types of junk food in one evening. Shit. We've curbed that now though to just the one a day.

Yesterday was the 1st May and so we went into Kreuzberg to take part in the May Day celebrations. I'd heard alot about this from loads of different people and they all said the same thing - throughout the day it's a really nice atmosphere, bands playing in the streets and parties all over, but after dark it can turn quite nasty with police clashing with demonstrators and protesters. This was absolutely something that I wanted to maybe not be directly involved with but certainly see first hand. We were told of two golden rules which just made both me and Tony really, really quite frightened. 1) Never run. 2) If it kicks off stand against the wall but remember to look up as sometimes people drop things like molotov cocktails off the roof. That's right, molotov cocktails from the roof. It was a really strange atmosphere because the police presence was just enormous and every single one of them was in full riot gear but at the same time there would be really young kids just walking round eating ice-creams and stuff. We heard there was 7000 armoured police here and around 30,000 people so the police looked just as nervous as anybody else there.

As it happened, not a great deal happened, there was a couple of police charges through the crowds which were quite aggressive but that aside it was a largely peaceful event as far as I could tell.

Right now Tony and I are in a cafe after eating tons of scrambled egg downed with banana and cherry juice.

Jules and Keef Curtis are coming tomorrow and then Geoff on Thursday, which is the day that little Edda get's back from her work away so it's gonna be a busy old week. Busy and full to the brim of booze and fun probably.