Good Riddance, 2007!

New Year's Eve, 2007.

i had a confetti accident.


That stuff is dangerous!


Daniela cringes as Juliane lights a tischfeuerwerk. Note the fondue pot on the table. Yeah, we thugg like dat.


the resultant explosion drastically affected the functionality of the Juliane's noisemaker.


Karin attempted gives the noisemaker a whirl, but to no avail.


This next photograph really captures New Year's Eve in Berlin--lots of shit exploded all over the place and then there was a huge mess. Seriously, it's like a war zone out there. People were lobbing fireworks toward us from their balconies as we made our way to a larger party...


When i woke up the next day, the sky was attempting to cover all traces of the previous year. Yay!


This is the first meal of the year. Not that exciting, but i like the way those eggs are lined up.

¡mi hermano!

yo dudes,

so, after my brother finished his big-ass tour through Europe, he elected to spend almost half of his precious few vacation days chilling out with me in Berlin.



Awesome right?

Outside of the few hours we hung out in Erfurt, i hadn't really seen him in six months, so i was pretty stoked to see him!



i kept forgetting to charge my camera battery, so there's not a ton of photos, but here are a few highlights of our adventures!

Having eaten almost one Döner kebap per hour after his arrival, Aaron proposed we kickstart the insanity with a triple shakey-face photo. This is unprecedented territory in the world of shakey-face photography, and should not be attempted by amateurs.



After that, we knew it was time to get down to business and rule some Karaoke. Somehow, we even convinced Juliane to come along, AND we convinced her to rock the mic hard! Boo-yah!



We spent a large portion of one day looking for the Berlin Guggenheim, which, we eventually discovered, will be closed until early November due to the installation of a new, um, installation. Anyway, the day was not a total waste, as we managed to find some sculptures of rather plump people/animals and pose for silly pictures amongst the chubbs.





The Are Notz gave their first European performance while Aaron was here, at a tiny little bar called Fabrik (Factory). I was a dumbass and forgot to ask someone to take a picture of us, but i can tell you that Aaron played trumpet, and i played ukulele and considering the fact that neither one of us really knew the songs, i'd say it went extremely well. Anyway, here's a photo of some other people i played music with that night!



All in all, we had a great time. I really hope he can make it back soon, for another round of superadventure!

i went to ERFURT

This has been a great week. i went to Erfurt, where there was a ferris wheel constructed in my honor!


On top of that slight exaggeration, there was REAL awesomeness. For the first time ever, my immediate family gathered...IN GERMANY. Here's a picture of the other three, chillin' in front of a gate at a crazy fort/waterwell in Erfurt. My dad pointed out that we were all wearing jeans and black shirts about four times, because he thought we weren't really paying attention to him. We probably weren't.


The impetus for this epic gathering was a Zappa Plays Zappa concert, for which my brother is a keyboardist/trumpeter/melodica-ist. My parents currently reside in Spain, so they made the trip over to visit and see the show (i haven't seen them since May!). This was just another day at the office for my brother, but for me, it was a ripping-rad concert that turned my ballsack into jello exactly six times. Here's the band taking a bow at the end of the show to the vigorous applause of a medium-sized audience (500?). Sorry for the crappy picture--that's just what happens sometimes.


After the show, my dad and brother were ready to party.



So, we befriended some locals who were at the concert and they took us to a great pub in Erfurt where the ceiling was lined with old glam-rock records and Bee-Gees lunchboxes. Here's a large portion of the Zappa Plays Zappa band with their new friends Andre (back right) and Andre's dad (back left). Sorry about somebody else's arm in the shot--we were all drinking a fair amount of beer. ;)



There was a huge poster of a Frank Zappa crappa on the door to the bar's toilet. It was rather humorous, seeing as we'd just come from a two and a half hour concert of Frank Zappa's music... Anyway, here's my brother miming dropping a deuce.



My parents and I came back to Berlin this morning (my brother is off to finish the tour, but he'll be back for more hijinks on the 15th!). We saw some sights. Here's a picture of my mom and dad contemplating the Berlin wall.


We all had a really hard time fathoming what Berlin life must have been like before the country unified and the wall came down. My dad eventually came to this conclusion.



My parents are leaving tomorrow, and i'm sad to see them go. I'm really glad we got to spend this time together--it was truly a very special week for me--i just hope they had as much fun as i did!

adios amigos!

various stuffs...

Yo gang,

Es tut mir leid--i'm getting lazy with the blog! i don't have a lot of great pictures this go 'round, but here's a few!

Earlier this month, these cheeky British devils popped in for a visit.


For some reason, that day there were tons of mannequins throughout the city in similar formal attire. Their visit inspired me to do something i had never done since i'd been here, which was to visit the Brandenburg Gate in the daylight hours. While we were there, there was some kind of bike race that wasn't really a race because everyone was riding slower than molasses in January.




This is the Great Garden Birthday Party Orchestra, performing Terry Riley's "In C" in Görlitzer Park.


The piece comprises 53 patterns of notes which each musician plays as many or as few times as (s)he wants. But the goal is to stay within 3 patterns of the rest of the group. It's kind of like being in the middle of a Vegas casino or something. This performance lasted just over an hour.

Oktober looks like it should be a great month. For starters, my two favorite Aarons will be visiting. Here's a picture of my brother, Aaron, and me (well, my legs).


This is my friend, Aaron, demonstrating outstanding bowling technique.


I don't know if Germany is ready for these guys, but i know i'm stoked to see 'em.

Also, on the 13th of Oktober, i'll be rocking out with some cool peeps as the support band for THESE DUDES at Arcanoa.


Well, that's it for now. Catch you on the flip!

glimpses of the mundane

i don't have much to report really, but it's been a long time since the last post, so here's a few kinda unexciting pictures. Yay!

a short while back, you may recall that my head looked like this.


well, i got one of my flatmates to lop some of that unruly mop off, and now my head looks like this.


On the 25th of August, i had a concert in a small cafe/bar. i played some songs solo and some with various combinations of three other people. Here's a picture of Sebastian, the mad scientist drummer. He's setting up all the equipment while i perform the very important task of taking pictures of him setting up.


Here, Steffan and Julie try to avoid being photographed, because they are also straight chillin while Sebastian gets all the gear in order. We played lots of original songs, and also did a country-western style cover of David Bowie's "MODERN LOVE". Process that.


This is a picture of Basti (a Fußballfreund) and a Bulgarian woman (whose name eludes me) attempting to imitate the unusual street sign.


Here's a picture of a few members of The Great Garden Birthday Party Orchestra. You can see my ukulele resting on the grass where i left it. So far, we've had one performance. We only play one song, but it lasts about an hour, and it's never entirely the same, so we hope to play again very soon!



well, that's all the pictures i have for now. because the camera battery died. But fear not! i'm RECHARGING IT! wooooooo!

i got Prague-rocked!

Ahoj!

Though i'm certain i didn't NEED a vacation, i went ahead and took one anyway, traveling by train to the picturesque city of Prague.

There are lots of historic sights in Prague, and i think i saw most of 'em. I found that my fotos don't really do the scenery justice, so i thought i'd share the pictures of things i found both AMAZING and AMUSING.

This is where i stayed on my trip. It was was actually pretty nice, and in a cool area--it only had the outward appearance of a crack hovel.



From Karlsbrücke... "He who donneth the propeller-beanie shall ascend to the higher realm, my son."


Very small decorative measures bring me great joy, so i was pleased to find that a lot of the benches in Prague seem to be bolted to the backs of metal dragons.


Beer boat.



Apparently, Czech women have ENORMOUS feet.


Once, i named one of my songs "SANCTA SIMPLICITAS", which is what the Czech religious reformer Jan Hus allegedly said (while being burned at the stake) to an old woman adding wood to the fire. For whatever reason, I was really stoked to see the memorial statue, but it was being renovated, and covered by a large blue screen that had large pictures of a car on one side.



This is a statue of Franz Kafka, which was somewhere in the general vicinity of where he grew up.


There were a whole bunch of modern art sculptures in the middle of the city. This one was called Frames. i mostly like the way this man just walked right through it.


This is a statue of two men peeing toward each other. Normally, the hips sway side to side while their wangs move up and down, making a 3-D peeparabola. However, the dude on the left had to have a major surgery involving dismemberment (i saw him later in the day and am relieved to report a full recovery).


i got this in a tiny pub. This tub o' brew set me back almost $1.30, but it truly was a MASTER beer; it OWNED my ass. by the time i finished half of this thing, i was already drunk.


Lastly, i will share perhaps the greatest farce of my trip, which was my attempt to eat an authentic Czech meal. This proved difficult, as most signs for Czech restaurants advertise specialties such as ROAST PORK KNEE. Feeling daring however, i went into one such restaurant. After at least ten minutes of trying to explain to the waitress that i would like something traditional that is not any kind of dead animal, she returned with these two SLABS of DEEP-FRIED MOZZARELLA. The fact that they served it WITH french fries was, i assume, an attempt on my life. Brave soldier that i am, i went ahead and dipped those mofos in that TARTAR SAUCE, to maintain the spirit of authenticity. The waitress also thought i was very funny, so she also gave me a free LITER of beer. i will write her a thank-you note while i lie in the hospital after my first quintuple-bypass.



that's it for now, peeps!

catch you laters!
ben

it's been a while!

So, hello everyone!

Es tut mir leid, it's been a really long time since i updated this bad boy. I had some trouble uploading photos for a while, and then i got frustrated and soured on the whole experience and tried to burn the whole stupid blog, but it only exists in cyberspace, so i had a lit match and nothing to set it to. Okay, that didn't really happen. Except the part about the trouble uploading and my subsequent aggravation.

To start things off, here's a graffiti of a flying hot dog surrounded by eyeballs.


And another of two ghosts arguing over drinks. Look how happy the drunkard ghoul is and how angry the health-nut is! If only they'd work together, they'd be two-thirds of the way to a delicious white russian.


This is the "Molecule Man". It's three dudes engaged in some kind of fierce combat on the surface of the Spree. i don't know what it's supposed to symbolize or represent, but i thought it was kind of awesome.


Here's a picture from a German "beach"--or somewhat sandy spot near the river where there are bars and volleyball nets. In this picture, Lisa wrestles with a broken chair that ultimately collapsed beneath her attempt to use it. I also thought this picture was funny because here, Corona is a PREMIUM beer. they love it here, and it's about THREE TIMES THE PRICE of other beers. So weird.


OVER THREE WEEKS AGO, the pickup on my ukulele broke. This wouldn't be a big deal, except for the fact that i play ELECTRIC UKULELE in a little groove-type band. Here's a picture of me trying to fix the uke at 3 AM. The battery wires are severed though, which i discovered about twenty minutes later. I took it to a repair shop, and those bastards STILL have it. Hope i get it back before my gig on the 25th!


Here, Juliane demonstrates how Berliners rent movies. You insert a membership card into the slot, tell the machine which movie you want, then it deducts the amount from your membership card and the movie pops out. There was a clerk working at the video store, too, but she was totally obsolete. It's kind of a figurehead position, really.

A few weeks ago (wow, it really has been too long), some American friends popped in for a visit. We went to a big Flea Market (Flohmarkt) at Mauerpark. Here's the back of my friend Marissa's head, as she scrutinizes the wares. A couple weeks later, i returned to the Flohmarkt and purchased a pair of shorts for fifty cents and an old, german typewriter which i haggled down to 8 euros.


They are totally nuts about Freestyle Footbag (you know, hackey sack) here. i thought these people were really amazing. i wish i'd thought to take a VIDEO with my camera, but i am dumb. Just last weekend, there was a huge FOOTBAG JAM in Mauerpark, and the FREESTYLE FOOTBAG WORLD CHAMPION (Freestylefootbagweltmeister) put on a demonstration of his sack mastery. It was awesome.


Finally, i was not aware of this, but there is a statue of me in Berlin. Here, you see i am sticking my hand into the butt of this unsuspecting boar.


(okay okay, it's Hercules...)