Monday, May 12, 2008
Riot Pictures
My friend Bryan posted these pictures of the May Day riots on his facebook profile. Thought I'd share them:
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Time I Reprioritize
My week has been a total shitshow.
It started off great; Monday night I got to see Ladytron, my favorite electropop band. They put on an amazing show and the venue was an old warehouse turn club in East Berlin. I met some cool people there and hung out pretty late.
Tuesday morning I met an old friend for breakfast who I haven't seen in over 5 years. The weather is beautiful so I've been making full use of street cafes. I've also been going against all my German instincts and getting American iced coffees at my local Dunkin. We've also started having German class at a beergarten.
Friday is when my week went downhill. Some international hippie friends invited Sam and me to stop by a four day beach party at a lake. Because we have so many papers due we decided not to stay past ten, even though everyone else was sleeping over in the tents. Figures we miss the last tram, so I was stuck in the middle of nowhere wearing only shorts, a Miami Vice tee, and my new Birkenstocks (FYI: not as comfortable as everybody says). By midnight I was freezing and wanted to die, it only got worse when we were squeezing into someones tent, three of us sharing one blanket. I couldn't sleep because I was shivering so badly, the worst part was that the way we were squeezed into the tent I couldn't curl up into a fetal position. I took off around 5 when trams started running again.
When I got home this morning I crashed and didn't wake up till 2:30. My friend Lauren and I then went down to the site where Nazis burnt books 75 yrs ago and they're having commemorative readings of some of the texts. We then went to a street cafe at the famous Gendarmen Markt to work on final papers. I'm writing an epic analysis of Heidi Klum's national identity. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend working on papers and will not be able to party at all.
This week's good news: MADONNA ANNOUNCED TOUR DATES! I'm planning on seeing her twice in New York. For the first show I'll get the best available ticket no matter what the cost, and for the second night I'll settle for nosebleed section.
Here's the teaser for her Amsterdam show:
This ad for the 2004 ReInvention tour is better though:
It started off great; Monday night I got to see Ladytron, my favorite electropop band. They put on an amazing show and the venue was an old warehouse turn club in East Berlin. I met some cool people there and hung out pretty late.
Tuesday morning I met an old friend for breakfast who I haven't seen in over 5 years. The weather is beautiful so I've been making full use of street cafes. I've also been going against all my German instincts and getting American iced coffees at my local Dunkin. We've also started having German class at a beergarten.
Friday is when my week went downhill. Some international hippie friends invited Sam and me to stop by a four day beach party at a lake. Because we have so many papers due we decided not to stay past ten, even though everyone else was sleeping over in the tents. Figures we miss the last tram, so I was stuck in the middle of nowhere wearing only shorts, a Miami Vice tee, and my new Birkenstocks (FYI: not as comfortable as everybody says). By midnight I was freezing and wanted to die, it only got worse when we were squeezing into someones tent, three of us sharing one blanket. I couldn't sleep because I was shivering so badly, the worst part was that the way we were squeezed into the tent I couldn't curl up into a fetal position. I took off around 5 when trams started running again.
When I got home this morning I crashed and didn't wake up till 2:30. My friend Lauren and I then went down to the site where Nazis burnt books 75 yrs ago and they're having commemorative readings of some of the texts. We then went to a street cafe at the famous Gendarmen Markt to work on final papers. I'm writing an epic analysis of Heidi Klum's national identity. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend working on papers and will not be able to party at all.
This week's good news: MADONNA ANNOUNCED TOUR DATES! I'm planning on seeing her twice in New York. For the first show I'll get the best available ticket no matter what the cost, and for the second night I'll settle for nosebleed section.
Here's the teaser for her Amsterdam show:
This ad for the 2004 ReInvention tour is better though:
Sunday, May 4, 2008
MAY DAY!
May Day in Kreuzberg, the Turkish neighborhood of Berlin that I live in, is a huge holiday with great traditions.
During the afternoon there is a large street fair where they set up stages with bands playing everything from hip-hop to punk and people drinks copious amounts of beer till they get exhausted and retire to one of the many parks to relax.
Late in the evening when everyone is completely out of their mind and on their second wind, the riots starts! Families and go back to their apartments and all that's left is angry locals, gutter punks, journalists, and a few stray NYU students. At this point several hundred cops in full riot gear carrying tear gas super-soakers flood the area. They carry little zip-ties to quickly hand cuff kids.
The rest of the night involves people setting things like trash cans on fire, throwing bottles at cops, and screaming anarchist slogans against the capitalist establishment. The cops rush the crowd, grab a few kids, throwing them to the ground and zip-tying their hands, the crowd retreats and the cops ease up. Rinse, wash, repeat. This all happened a million times throughout the night. My friends and I were way at the front, and one of us even got hurt a little.
Having recovered from Thursday's festivities, I had a delightful lazy Sunday. My friend Sam and a Minnesotan yoga teacher we know both had birthdays recently so we celebrated by going to Mauer Park. The park is in an über-hip neighborhood and everyone looked like they should be in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We drank champagne and wine and smoked hookah, while some kids in our group played guitar.
The slideshow contains pictues from my recent day trip to Dresden.
During the afternoon there is a large street fair where they set up stages with bands playing everything from hip-hop to punk and people drinks copious amounts of beer till they get exhausted and retire to one of the many parks to relax.
Late in the evening when everyone is completely out of their mind and on their second wind, the riots starts! Families and go back to their apartments and all that's left is angry locals, gutter punks, journalists, and a few stray NYU students. At this point several hundred cops in full riot gear carrying tear gas super-soakers flood the area. They carry little zip-ties to quickly hand cuff kids.
The rest of the night involves people setting things like trash cans on fire, throwing bottles at cops, and screaming anarchist slogans against the capitalist establishment. The cops rush the crowd, grab a few kids, throwing them to the ground and zip-tying their hands, the crowd retreats and the cops ease up. Rinse, wash, repeat. This all happened a million times throughout the night. My friends and I were way at the front, and one of us even got hurt a little.
Having recovered from Thursday's festivities, I had a delightful lazy Sunday. My friend Sam and a Minnesotan yoga teacher we know both had birthdays recently so we celebrated by going to Mauer Park. The park is in an über-hip neighborhood and everyone looked like they should be in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We drank champagne and wine and smoked hookah, while some kids in our group played guitar.
The slideshow contains pictues from my recent day trip to Dresden.
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