Ambient Techno is my Friend.

Everything But Bored

I'm keeping myself busy, not necessarily with important things though. *cough*

It's pretty sure I'll be getting a flat in the house Markus lives in. The one I want is slightly larger, a little prettier, has a stove (that might explode upon wrong use, ha) and costs €5's more. I like it. A lot. Moving in for July should work too. Exciting!

Regarding a job, to be honest, I have yet to actively look for one. So far I've only used a few of my apparently excellent contacts (in the not so distant past, I was told several times by different people how odd it is that I know so many people everywhere) to ask at several companies if they need some help (with anything). Wish me luck :)

Most of the time, I'm enjoying myself here. Should change that a little, I guess? However, I've attended my first demonstration, which happend to be for Yorck 59:

Markus took me for a "little" 4 or 5 hour walk in a nearby forrest:

I took him to Gob Squad's Me the Monster. It was a lovely performance, despite it's "frightening" name. They handed out a questionare before the show, to find out what monster everyone is, to later explain what exactly that means. The monster descriptions where surprisingly accurate, at least for me and Markus. Yes, I admit, I do believe in love, as kitschy and unrealistic this may sound. Thank you for making me remember that.

Last but not least, we went to see Simon Bookish and Leafcutter John (whom I've missed in Vienna last year, according to him an awful show anyway) at the Zentrale Randlage. Both performances were very nice, if not to say inspiring:

The thing you can barely see in the picture is a Slinky, modified to emit some electronic signals picked up by the iBook, which then transforms it to sound (via Max/MSP?) that resembles a storm heard from a hut. At least, that's how I perceive/imagine it. I've caught it on video.

Metroblogging activities continue as well: I posted my first article for Berlin today. I hope to get flamed.

Now that was one huge catch-up entry.

The New World, Now

I've packed again, I've arrived.

Since yesterday I've got Internet at home. It took two days of sniffing the traffic of 19 wireless networks with KisMAC. If you happen to live round here and have a WiFi access point with no encryption/password called WLAN, please contact me, I'd like to thank you and of course pay you half of the costs. I don't mind the wonky nature of the connection and its slow speed – you have no idea how good it feels to be able to stay in touch with my loved ones easily.

Does that make me sound like an addict?

Anyway. I owe you my first impressions. Berlin is big. And it's hard to find some orientation. It was easier to find myself getting through London alone at stations and places I haven't been to. As far as I've noticed, there are hardly any one-way streets and Zebrastreifen but other pedestrian crossings. Coffee culture is completely different if not to say, not even comparable with the Viennese one. Everything is frickin' cheap. I hope I won't spend more money because of that …

It's hard to get hold of one opinion here. Some say Wedding (the district) is a horrible place to stay due to crime, other's say it's nice, some say the Carnival of Cultures is bad, others recommend me to go there. Maybe riding a bike is really the way to go here, even though I've been told it's suicide? Oh well, orientation first anyway.

So let me introduce to you, Markus' flat:

I really hope to get a flat in this house, even though playing loud music and organising wicked parties is out of discussion (you can hear the person below us singing and playing an acoustic guitar).

Of course, two of the few days outside, I spent with Austrians: Thursday and Friday were mainly devoted to monochrom which are part of Heimspiel 2006, a nice exhibition in Kreuzberg, where we (me and Markus that is) helped them a little with their video loop DVD.

But! I'm going to meet Till from the Berlin Metroblog where I'm hopefully be able to participate soon, and Enki introduced me to Julia that will show me the CCCB, and Jan said he might show me a little bit of the city. Yay for locals!

Yeah, and this is how Markus makes (delicious) pizza. Minimal kitchens rule, don't they?

I'm sorry, does this entry sound a little silly to you?