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!
People, what can I say?! It took me two full days to recover (well, somewhat that is), but f*******ck what an experience. 85.000 crazy drunk but friendly rock fans and “Hip-Hop-Hadi” in the midst of it all.
Rock am Ring was intense, loud, exhausting, cold, rainy, incredible, wonderful, stressful, have I said cold (?), exciting, odd, overwhelming, cold. I tried to take as many pics as possible, but after all I was working. And then the battery died like two days into the festival. I kept thinking “damn… I’m a lousy blogger for not bringing my f*cking charger!”
But anyways, here are some more impressions from 4 days of RaR: (more…)
They’re said to be arrogant and difficult but mad talented and good looking. So at work, half of the people were envious and the other half was pitying me for having to spent 1h on a live TV show with Swedish rock band Mando Diao. I was really looking forward to it.. I always like a good challenge!
In the end, some of what was being said about the 5 boys was true and some wasn’t: Yes they are difficult, they don’t like to talk about girls, having light smalltalk just to get the show started is not really their thing, they are terrible ping pong players and they always have a slightly bored look on their faces. But: they are really likeable, serious about their music, absolutely talented (the accoustic version of “Dance With Somebody” they performed in the studio was absolutely amazing, Bjoern is a hell of a singer!), they don’t have a problem with being so bad at ping pong, they are kinda dorky (which I love), funny and yes, I have to say it, really good looking.
Through out the entire show we kept on joking about how funy we must look – them wearing all black (Gustaf was the only one wearing at least some colors with a black top coat though) and me wearing this reeeeeaaaaally bright dress. so we decided that we have to take a picture of us all posing like OGs… they really are funny!
And “Dance With Somebody” is just absolutely amazing. If you bother to listen to the lyrics, you’ll find out, that it is actually a rather sad song. The version they performed in the studio (Bjoern singing and Gustaf on the guitar) reflected the lyrics more than the actual very danceable version of the song. Both are brilliant but I only have this one to share with you for now.
This is from October. I found it again today and decided to share it with you guys, because the message never gets old!
This pic was taken by Marc Rehbeck for the October issue of TV Digital and while the shot itself didn’t take that long, putting on the body paint took about 5-6h. My knees hurt like a mo’f… and my back was aua! But I’m not only proud of it I also love the fact that it was for a great cause! So next time anyone feels the urge to dive into something like a second Knut-madness maybe you think about it for a sec.
The guy was something like my childhood hero. “Fight the Power” dropped when I was 10. I didn’t really understand what the song was all about, but I got the fact that it was a big deal. My big brother was all crazy about it. He was 13 and this entire neo-black-power movement was like a revelation to him. I mean, imagine: it’s the late 80s, early 90s. You’re a black kid living in a predominantly white society… there are hardly idols you could turn to. Of course we had our parents, they looked like us, but when we watched tv it was kinda difficult to identify with the people you saw there. They were so different. And then BOOOM! Public Enemy emerged out of nothing and they were not like the others. They were angry! They had some sort of military appeal! They were intimidating! And they were so strong. So proud. That was big. It had a huge impact on my brother, it had a big impact on me.
Today, I taped a show with Flavor Flav. The Flaaaaavor Flaaaaaaav!!!! And it was – again- a big deal. I didn’t always like his career decisions, I didn’t always like how he presented himself. But he is part of one of the most important bands of my life. I was scared of having some image that I had in my head damaged, some ideal distorted BUT I can say I’m glad I met him because he is genuinely good. He is a warm, polite and nice person.
PE FOREVER!!!!
The show airs on Saturday afternoon. I’ll post some more pics asap!
No big surprise: I’m not the biggest computer game player! But after hosting the first Game Awards in MTV history, I do sorta understand the fascination. Last night MTV celebrated game culture to the fullest by honoring computer games in a full-fledged award show. And boys and girls I’m telling ya… it’s gonna be crazy. I met the beautiful Jade Raymond (Assasin’s Creed), shook hands with the legend Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) and talked to the crazy guys from Rockstar Games. The show is fun and even if you don’t enjoy computer games, you’re gonna love it!
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!
