Paul Green visits.

It's now the end of July and I've moved out of my place in Huttenroderweg with Paula and Angeline. I've taken on a room in a shared flat not too far away with a guy from Australia and a girl from Austria - both seem like nice people with a similar sense of humour. I don't move into this flat until the 12th August so for the time being I am homeless. I've got places to stay though, James has gone away until the end of the month and Seb and Charlotte have also gone away on holiday for a few weeks and both have very kindly left me the keys to their flats. So I write this from the relative luxury of Seb and Charlotte's brand new massive sofa bed.

One of my best friends ever, Paul Green, has just been to visit me and we had such a good time. It was great to see Paul. Paul suffers from manic depression (I don't think he'll mind me writing this as he was diagnosed a few years ago and also he told a lot of people here that, in his own words, he has mind problems) and at the moment he has just come out of a long spell of depression and is in a manic stage. Paul and I have known each other since I was 19 which is nearly 11 years now and we've been through quite a lot together. We've had some absolutely amazing and magical times and we've also had some really shitty and frightening times together. This trip to Berlin can be counted amongst the amazing and magical times (as are most tbh)...we had such a laugh from the moment he arrived here holding a sick bag with my name on it in the air. He helped me out at Liquidation on Thursday night (which was one of the busiest ever), then we had a great day on Friday drinking and playing pool and giggling and singing and then on Saturday, Pete turned up with his band, 'Pete Bentham and The Dinner Ladies', so we hung out with Pete and co all night and watched them do really great gig.
By Sunday we were both pretty done in so we just hung out at my place and ate some proper food (not kebabs, not pizza, not ale) and then on Monday we pretty much done the same and then I put Paul on the bus to the airport in the afternoon. It was a bit of a whirlwind but it was so, so good to see him and I hope it happens again soon. He's a beautiful person. If you want to see around 600 photographs of Paul's visit, you can go on his facebook and have a look.

Last week I had the responsibility of finding the cast for a video shoot that James was directing for a band called Twin Atlantic. I had to muster up 20 people to fill out a Berlin street. In the weeks/days leading up to the shoot I had gathered up the troops and managed to get 20 of my friends to promise that they will be there at 7am on what could have been a cold and wet July morning. I was so, so worried in the days and hours leading up to the shoot because if the people didn't show up then the whole shoot would have been a disaster and I would have gotten into loads of shit. The night before I didn't sleep at all worrying about it. Anyway, I needn't have feared as on the morning of the shoot there were about 25 or so people that turned out for me and the weather was boss!! I'm hugely grateful to all those who came along and did such a good job!! It was, at times, very boring with lots of waiting around and it was so hot too, but everyone was totally awesome and I think overall, we all had a really good day. The shoot went well and we had a big ol' BBQ afterwards and then went down to the canal for a bit of Kubb.

Right now I'm going to crack on with recording and then I'm going to go on a bit of a bike ride alone. I think I gained about 5 stone in ale whilst paul was over and I've just watched The Fighter so I feel dead motivated.

Just information.

Time seems to move super-fast-warp-speed-turbo boost here. I think I'm 54 years old already. No, that's not true. Sometimes I feel like I'm 54 years old though. My liver in particular. A 54 year old tramp. It's impossible to stay sober in Berlin. If you really want to stay sober I've found the best way is to not leave your bedroom. At all. You have to stay in there. Even if you leave, there might be a flat mate with a bottle of wine or some beers. If you actually go outside the house then there's nothing down for you - you're going to be pissed within minutes. It's cheaper to buy a bottle of beer here than it is to buy a bottle of water. Anway, I'm being dramatic and of course you don't have to drink if you don't want to, it's just way easier to find yourself drinking if you are that way inclined.

I've been working with James a little bit the last month on a music video for a norwegian band called Katzenjammer. I've recently seen the final edit and it looks cracking! I'll stick it up here when it's ready. I was mostly preparing the sets for the shoot - drilling and hammering and painting and re-wiring stuff. Good fun though and it was great to work with and meet loads of boss people.

I played a gig a couple of weeks ago at a kindergarten. I was a bit sceptical at first but once the hangover had been shaken off and we started playing it was kind of amazing! The kids all wandered over to us like tiny zombies and we had layed down a load of percussion instruments on the floor for them to grab, which they did...they went mental!! It was boss! We're doing it again tomorrow afternoon and I'm really looking forward to it.

It's been nice playing more with Silent Sleep. We went to Trier last week and played a couple of gigs there. It was so nice to see Alex and Katrin and Marius and all of those guys again - they're some of the best people in the world and I'm glad I can call them friends. The gigs were great and we had about 47 laughs in total. One of the things I like best about playing with Silent Sleep is that we can pretty much turn up anywhere and do our normal set - we've done quite a few gigs in parks recently and it's so much fun. People just turn up with a bottle of wine and some butties or whatever...it's absolutely one of the most civilised things ever. I've been recording the 2nd part of the trilogy too. It's taken me way longer than I expected but only due to me being too easily distracted. I'm looking forward to finishing it and getting it out there. James is going to make a video for the song 'Love Never Lasts' which is going to be great. I think that song is my bleakest ever song. I enjoy playing it to the children in the kindergarten. It's a valuable lesson that needs to be learnt.

I have to move out of the place I've been staying in since March at the end of this month so I'm looking for new places. It's tricky though - I've sent SO many emails replying to ads and out of maybe 40 I've had 1 reply. Not panicking just yet though.

Abandoned theme park

This weekend, Friday in particular, was one of the most fun weekends I've had, which is saying something because I've had quite a few bits of fun recently. But Friday was fun for loads of reasons. I was supposed to be djing in Prenzlauer Berg at 10pm but I met up with James in the afternoon and we had a dead cool time having casual ales in a few different bars around Neukoelln. We met some friends who own a cafe and sat with this dead nice guy who I'd never met before but can't remember his name, then we went to a bar around the corner and sat with this ex professional footy player who James and I met a couple of weeks ago in a turkish betting shop and had a few drinks with him. It was 9pm by this point and I remembered I had to go all the way back to mine to get my records before heading off to DJ (Prenzlauer Berg is about 30 mins by bike). We were both a bit boozy by this stage and James decided to come with me to DJ. We grabbed our bikes and my records and started pegging it towards the train station. We got on a train but it booted us off after 2 stops so we legged it from there to the tram and jumped on a tram. Eventually we arrived at the bar, 45 minutes late, only to find out that I'd been told the wrong date and it was actually the next day I was DJing. I couldn't believe it, I was dripping with sweat and totally out of breath and all flustered and what have you. The guy was sound though and apologised and gave us both a pint and me a packet of fags too. It wasn't that bad though because earlier in the day we were talking about this event that was happening at an old abandoned theme park so now, what with me not having to DJ, we could go. We cycled back from Prenzlauer Berg to Treptower Park singing Roy Orbison songs and Beach Boys songs and Beatles songs dead loud. It was about midnight now. Finally we made it to the park and to get the old amusement park we had to bike through the park in total darkness for about 20 minutes. It was kind of fun but I don't mind admitting that there were times when I was frightened. Anyway, we made it, but we only made it at the very end when it was emptying out and locking up for the night but James knew somebody who worked there and she let us in anyway so we decided to just get a bit lost in there. It was magic. All the old shacks and stands where all still there from when it last opened it's doors 20 years ago. Everywhere was a little bit battered and all the plants and grass and bushes where dead overgrown. There was even a couple of massive plastic dinosaurs left lying on the ground. It looked mad. We went past a pond that we thought had some speakers near it playing animal noises and then we realised that the pond was just full of frogs and the frogs were all croaking their mad little heads off!! We went past a really beautiful black horse (not real) and it was on a track so James and I took turns pushing each other around the track on it. It was completely overgrown with thorn bushes though so we got toally shredded whilst doing it, but it was really good fun and we made it all the way around. We carried on walking, avoiding the security guards and all that and eventually we found a group of people sat around a fire and drinking booze so we went over and sat down with them. Turns out they're all lovely french and german people so we sayed there for an hour or so, chatting and drinking and stuff. We decided to leave them to it and we headed back to our bikes.

Something a bit weird happened on the way home. not totally, totally weird, but defo a bit mad, like. We were biking, again through the dark - actually, just remembered that we both nearly absolutely fell off our bikes when we drove at a good bit of pace into a bit of tree that someone had left lying across the path - anyway, yeah, we were biking to Kreuzberg because we were going to meet some friends, by this point it's probably about 2.30am or something, and we came to this massive stretch of road that was closed to cars so we started pegging it dead fast, racing each other and then this guy who was going the same way started to join in the race and the three of us raced down the road until we came to where the road blocks where and then we slowed down and had a bit of a laugh and introduced ourselves to this guy who was gegging in on the race. Lovely fella, he was, Italian dude from Florence. Anyway, James and I split off and when we got to Kotbusser Tor I saw this girl I know called Lisa. She was just standing there smiling at me as if she was waiting for me or something, but she wasn't, like. So we stopped and said hello and a bit of a chat etc. She was waiting for her friend. Then her friend showed up whilst we were chatting. It was the Italian fella who we'd just met 10 minutes before!! How mad is that?!?! Is it mad or is it just me? That's well mad.

But yeah, it was just a dead nice day, spontaneous boozing, biking round, abandoned theme parks...mega.

I DJ'd in Mokum last night, which is a bar I've started playing in once a month. It's absolutely good fun and I really anjoy playing there but everytime I do it I stagger out at like 7am completely off my head on alcohol. Don't really remember getting home or leaving the bar but I'm here in my bedroom now and I managed to not get my records or my guitar robbed off me. I had my guitar on me because I played a gig at this open-air event in Schoneweide earlier in the day. I feel a bit ropey now though so I'm going to go and watch some more of the american version of the office before heading out later to eat delicious vietnamese food, which is my favourite thing to eat in Berlin.

p.s. can not be bothered to re-read that so probably loads of grammar and spelling mistakes. I always try and start off proper but then the faster I type and it all starts spewing out it just goes to pot.

This came in the post this morning...

Christopher,

Greetings this fne day. Thanks for getting back to me.
Regarding the questionairre. Please don't fret over the final couple answers. I Will have plenty to go on with the answers you've already finished. It's not supposed too be difficult. Just relax and let go and the answers will come out naturally. Not to worry.
Please send a picture.

Regarding the pricing, let me give you some perspective on your idea that the prices are high. There are some people that think the prices are too low. They understand the spiritual energy that I put into each picture. I've been an artist for most of my 55 years. So when I approach a subject I bring all those years of practice to bare. Each picture usually takes about 4 hours to complete. At $50 per hour that is
$150. I'm worth probably more like $150 per hour with all my experience, so I'm giving people a great deal at $150. And I offered you $50 off. This is considered a fantastic value!

I hope this helps you to see the oppurtunity in front of you.
Right now I have several portraits I'm working on so I'm getting busy. I can offer you this great price of $100 until tomorrow. Then it goes back up to $150. To make it an even better deal we can do a payment plan. $50 now and $50 in a couple weeks from now. We can spread it out for your convenience.

There is one more discount option I can give you. I''ll do it for $75 if you pay me all it up front right now by tomorrow.

So, we have one more day to decide.
Thanks so much Christopher!

Best,

€rial

I'm going to reply tomorrow.

More Celesting

Had a great night at Liquidation on Thursday just gone! It was totally busy and the people were dead nice too. Loads of dancing 'til the sun came up and then even more somewhere else! Friday was a write off for me but on Saturday I met up with a few guys and we went to play Boules just down the road from where I live. It was a really warm night and after we played a bit of boules we sat down by the canal and lit some candles and drank a few beers. It was great and it's little beautiful moments like these that remind me why moving to Berlin was definitely the right thing to do. The next day was Easter Sunday and me and James and a few others headed up north to a place outside of Berlin called Liepnitzsee, where there is a huge lake with an island in the middle, surrounded by a dead nice forrest. We lay down on the banks of the lake and had a little picnic and tried to swim a bit but it was dead icy so we only got in for about 16 seconds. Apparently my shorts were really see through so I might have inadvertently showed everyone my willy. I loved that day.

I've been continuing my dialogue with our man who makes celestial soul portraits. Here they are...

This is from Erial, as I didn't reply straight away to his last mail...

C

Just wanted you to know one other person just got in line for a possible portrait.
Since you were first in line I wanted to give you the first chance to get started.
What can you afford my friend? I'll work with you now if your really interested.
It's like a spiritual quest. You need to have a passion for it to work. the energy
is in the air now. Let's use it to ignite your soul portrait into illuminated manifestation!

E

To which I replied...

Hi Erial,

So sorry I've not been in touch recently. I've been spending most of the time thinking about it all, hard. I've gone through your on-line questionnaire and I've answered all of the questions apart from one, which I'm stuck on. It's the one about who I would be if I was sat at the round table. I just can't make up my mind and it's tearing me apart right now!!

I do want to go ahead with this if we can find the right price. I feel you're asking a bit too much if I'm completely honest (and I swear by a policy of truth at all times and I expect the same from others). Could you tell me a little bit more about the process and why it costs so much money??

I'd be so grateful if you could and perhaps it would ease my concerns regarding the money.

I wish you a very happy time.

Chris


I'll let you know when he reaches me.

Celestialisation

So, our celestial artist friend has got back in touch. I'm starting to think that the whole thing is a joke and he's actually some hipster who probably has a blog like this and is posting dead similar entries but obviously with the roles reversed. Or maybe I'm wrong and I'm communicating with a lunatic.

Chris wrote:

Hi Erial,

Thanks so much for getting back to me! I'm really excited about this!

My only problem is with the cost and I hope you don't mind me asking this question but why does it cost so much? Do you think you could come down in price? I would really like so much to begin the transformational process.

Also, my second concern is a little silly but I have to ask it anyway...will the portrait lose any of it's celestial beauty when being sent by email?

Kind regards Erial, look forward to moving along with this hopefully.

Christopher


€rial wrote:

Hi Christopher,

I was just thinking about offering you a discount because of a recent dream I had. So it's funny you should ask. What I could do is take off $50 and make it an even 100. Can you do that? Is this within your budget? Then I will send you an 8.5 x 11 high resolution art file that you can print on your end.

There is no loss of detail or spiritual energy sending you a computer file. The colors are vibrant and alive. The portrait contains celestial energies that will assist you in maintaining a high vibration whenever you look at it.
A great meditation tool for spiritual growth.

So please send me a picture of you to work from so we can get started.

It would be nice to have the full payment amount all at once if you can swing it. If you pay through paypal and say it's a gift then I get to keep the full amount we decide on.
So let me know how this all sounds. I'm excited to begin the process!

Best,

€rial

Celestial Chris

Just got back home after a the first practise with Aude, a girl I met here. She's from near Paris and she sings like a mad french angel - really beautiful voice! It was a good practise. Seb came too, so slowly but surely we're making forward steps towards being ready for our first show, which is planned to be a show in a park by a pond on June 5th. There should be 8 people in the band I think.

A couple of weeks ago my good friend Andrew Donovan came to visit me and he told him of this great website. It's called Celestial Soul Portraits and it's run by a guy who, for the reasonable price of $250, will take your bog standard portrait photograph, taken here on planet Earth, and turn it into a portrait of you in Unicorn-land, with a staff, pink stars, other-worldy atmospheres and Unicorns. The site is incredible. He demonstrates how he can bring out your higher celestial being with a few before and after shots. One is of him and he basically turns himself from a man standing in a garden with a rake into Jesus fucking Christ.

I was interested in getting one done so I sent him a mail.

This is my mail and the response.

Hi,

My friend told me about your magical portraits and I'd like to know more about this.

What do I need to do to find out more about my higher celestial presence?

Many thanks,

Yours,

Christopher



Hi there Christopher,

Thanks for asking about the celestial soul portraits.

All we need are 3 basic things.

First you decide which size portrait you would like, either 8 x 10 for $150 or 12 x 16 for $250.

Then you send me a high resolution photo to use as the basis of the image.

Second we need you to answer some questions so I can see into your highest spiritual nature.

Finally I need you to send me 50% down for me to begin the transformational process.

The image comes to you as a high resolution file unless we make other arrangements.

I can't wait to begin!

Thanks again,

Erial


I'll continue to stick up our little celestial dialogue. I might actually even get one!