Maybe it is because I have a few pregnant women in my life rightnow or maybe it’s because I’ve been having thoughts about settling down, questions about family, marriage etc. in my head lately. And maybe it’s just because it’s a beautiful film, but the new Sam Mendes movie touched me to a dgree it actually hurt.
Imagine this: Two women go to the movies late on Wednesday night. They chose one of those indie movies. It’s playing in a big theater, which is pretty weird to them because it really isn’t a blockbuster or anything and they wonder even more why it is actually shown on the biggest screen. We enter the theater and are not really surprised to find it totally empty. EMPTY. There was nobody but us watching that movie. And then “Away We Go” started.
This film, written by Dave Eggers (who just worked on “Where the Wild Things Are” with Spike Jonze) and his wife Vendela Vida, is one of the most beautiful pieces of cinematography I’ve seen in a long time. It’s not loud but it’s funny. It’s sweet and it’ll hurt you a bit. It’s about two people, their fears about bringing new life into this world and their love for each other. “Away We Go” is painfully wonderful. John Krasinski is hilariously cute. Maya Rudolph is adorably sweet.
So that was the perfect movie night: two girls, a theater all to ourselves and an amazing, amazing movie.
It was supposed to be a great afternoon! The weather was nice and Hertha had never lost when I was in the stadium. NEVER. And even this Sunday it wasn’t the other team we lost against – it was ourselves.
After the shock of watching your own team beat itself you start to see the comedic beauty of the situation. Slapstick at its best. There’s nothing else you could do but laugh about it – as sad as it maybe!
No doubt, it’s an important day. It is the day we celebrate the German Reunification – the national holiday. This year is special. Even though we didn’t celebrate the 20th anniversary of that particular day, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall (that always takes place in November). The importance of this day for Germany in general and for Berlin in particular was maybe the reason why over 1 Million people came out party at the Brandeburg Gate on Saturday. Bands were playing, it was also the finale of the Coca Cola Soundwave Discovery Tour (a talent contest for young bands that are given the chance to play in front of a HUGE crowd) so MTV broadcasted the party live!
It was a great, yet exhausting day! And impressive. Mad impressive!
Two gigantic puppets on a string had been making they’re way through the entire city in the days before October 3rd. They were telling a story about finding and losing people.The smaller puppet was the lost niece of the bigger puppet.
She approached the Brandeburg gate from the East:
And he approached it from the West:
After a long search they met in middle: right at the Brandenburg Gate!
It was touching. Especially for the kids that couldn’t stop staring! After that it was time to work.
I was rocking the “Just Dada It” shirt for the show and found some more Artschool love: Benny rocking the “Wrestle Eins” shirt!
Best preconditions to let the games begin:
The crew
Barbie moment (the pink was REALLY pink!):
Touch up:
Ma favorite colleague (who has a serious cellphone addiction!):
But he is the best in the world!
Secuuuuurity Andreas and production manager Pierre (he’s a lot taller than most people so they are prone to listen to whatever he says) as well as production manager Nathalie that cheated her way onto to picture
Bumped into my lovely colleague Palina backstage who was visiting us and had to laugh because we obviously favor the same Nike windrunner channeling some “Scarface photo wallpaper” appeal. You gotta love it!
And the most IMPRESSIVE shot of the evening: The stage shot looking down at over half a million people!
The idea is simple: go to 1 place, ask 50 people 1 question, film their answers and get a glimpse of how marvelous life is. “Fifty People, One Question” is a wondeful video project I just discovered. It is about us, our lifes, our wishes, dreams and fears. It is about getting to know people without really knowing them, it is about feeling for and with each other.
It is beautiful. The editing is amazing, the music grabs your heart. I fell in love with the individuals in the clips, with their honesty. This just made my day!
What I love most about it is the fact, that there is always something to discover. I’m a car girl, I mostly drive through the city. I have a bike now, so sometimes, if the weather is nice I’ll ride that. But I just realized that in Berlin you still “find” areas that you’ve passed a million times but once you WALK through them it’s a whole different story. You don’t even have to drive all the out there, mostly it’s right in front of our nose.
I took a stroll through the Mitte/Kreuzberg area right behind Spittelmarkt the other day and booooy, Berlin suprises me over and over again. That area is not so”kiezig” as we’d say. In a way, it’s empty. The wall used to go through that part of the city and you still feel the notion of it having been a somewhat deserted area for years. You have tons of industrial buildings that are being reconstructed, old impressive houses and then unexpectedly fallow land. It’s amazing. And this September has been just beautiful!
I’ve been meaning to post this and introduce this dapper gentleman for quite a while now. Finally came around it. Please meet Stones Throw’s newest musical gift to the world: Mayer Hawthorne. He’s talented. A great dj turned soul singer who brings back some sort of decency to the out-of-control-in-and-out-of-jail-in-and-out-of-rehab music scene. I like his style – musically and fashionwise!
His album “A Strange Arrangement” has been out for 3 weeks now, I urge you to go and get it!
You’ll love this guy! Promise. I mean, I love him. And how couldn’t I: He released his first single on heart-shaped vinyl!
I’m always scared I’ll be disappointed, always scared I might not like them. You have a perfect image of someone in your head and don’t want that to be ruined…. Sometimes you do get to meet the people you admire and everything’s just great. They are nice, amazing and afterwards you like them even more than before (hello Flava Flav). But sometimes you meet them and they turn out to be real douche bags (hello Ludacris).
So last week I was at some award show and *BAM* there he was! 74 years old (his birthday is a day before mine) but still there was no doubt about it – it was him! Dieter ‘Didi’ Hallervorden. The guy that made me laugh when I was a kid, the guy that still makes me laugh. I held my breath. My first intention was to go over there and say something. Tell him that I was a huge fan, that he was so important to me when I was little, that it meant so much to watch him as an immigrant kid in the 80ies. To this day I think that Dieter Hallervorden is the only comedian my parents know by name. We watched his films and my parents learned German with Didi. One facial expression was enough to have the entire family rolling on the floor laughing!
Now fast forward 25 years.
I’m sitting opposite to him. He’s with a woman. I’m wondering: is that his wife? Are they sharing a pivate moment? Would it maybe be just rude to go and talk to him? Maybe he doesn’t wanna be bothered. He was in a conversation. What if he was unfriendly? I’d be crushed. I was battling with myself for more than 40min. Discussing that question with my friends. You had two camps: some where saying “Go! How could he possibly be unfriendly or rude if you’re being honest and sweet enough to talk to him?” The other camp was a bit more hesitant saying something like “Don’t you think it would be just weird to pop into his conversation and give him this awkward fan-moment in a situation where he’s just not expecting it?” Hhhhhmmm. Maybe. But if there’s one thing I really hate it’s asking myself the what-if-question. You won’t ever know what would’ve happened if you don’t just do it!
So I took a deep breath, went over there, tapped him on the shoulder, introduced myself and started bubbling about……everything. I think I repeated the phrase “You have no idea how important you are to my family” about 50 times. And him? He was amazing! He listened to me and smiled. Then he told me how honored he was and that he was very happy to hear whatever I had to say. We talked about his new job as the owner and director of the Schlossparktheater in Berlin. He invited me to see the next play he was going to be in, asked me about my job etc. My heart was beating like crazy, I was sweating and through our entire conversation I was cheesing like a little kid on a sugar high. It was great! I asked him for a picture and he was more than pleased to pose with me!
I felt invincible all night and somewhat proud to see that, after I broke the ice, all of a sudden everybody started a conversation asking for a picture. I had mine. And most of all I have an even better image of Dieter Hallervorden in my head. Thank you Didi for not making me regret the fact that after all I’m still just a fan! Oh, and how I love the funny face he’s making!!!
Yes, again, I’ve been a lazy chick when it comes to my blogging game. I know, I know! But since August was just wonderful, I wanted to take some time off and just enjoy summer. And damn kids, what a summer it was!
We had wonderful Sundays out on the lake (Thx Omy, Bee, Dave, Big L, and Robsen):
We had lovely Sundays out on the flea market (Thx Romes & Kalle):
We saw cool performances like Chrisette Michel’s gig in front 25 people (Thx Gab, Chantal & Oz):
Spent nights blocking the streets of Berlin just to get a glimpse of Parra (Thx Ruthi, Koala, Romes & AM):
We had good food (Thx Nenna, Bee, Omy, JT & Zycho):
After a looooong search I finally found a bike (Thx Henne, Stefan, Arun & Fabi):
We played the first PX Basketball Tournament and won (Thx Nico, Phil, Bianca, Emily, Nora & Annabel, the Amsterdamned, La Famille Parisienne, Cranktown and Stuggi):
We celebrated my love’s wedding, which was just amazingly beautiful (Thx Dee & Pee):
And I turned 30 and decided to bring in the new decade with a *BANG* (thx Nora & Big P):
(pics by Robsen)
(pic by Heiko Schäfer)
After this amazing summer (not talking about the weather here – more abot the stories, emotions and feelings) we’re all ready for fall. My song for the summer of 2009? There can only be ONE answer:
It’s amazing, but right now everything is good. My parents are healthy, my sister’s about to make me an auntie, my brothers are both with me, one of my best friends is about to marry the love of her life, I’ll soon have my Nati back, Ruthi is happy with her job, Ms. Slick is about to make me a godmother, the girls are all doing their thang, the ones I thought I had lost I will never lose, I have plenty of work, I eat, I’m free, the sun is shining, I feel blessed. This would be the perfect time to say: “Thank you, dear universe!”
This girl is automatic, supersonic, hypnotic, funky fresh, works your body so melodic and she goes right through your chest! Other than that she is MTV on your telly, Fritz on your radio, Juice on your newstand and now: artschool vets on your computer! Yessir!
