It’s done. I’ve fully booked the trip to New Zealand. Itinerary:

August 2nd: Via Austrian Air
Berlin Tegel to Vienna Depart: 07:00 Arrive 08:10
Vienna to Sydney Depart: 10:55 Arrive 20:10 (Aug. 3rd)

August 10th: Via Virgin Blue
Sydney to Melbourne Depart: 12:15 Arrive: 1:45

August 16th: Via Qantas
Melbourne to Wellington Depart 09:10 Arrive: 14:40

So for those of you trying to keep track, those are details. Hard to imagine that in just over a month I’ll be in another country and hemisphere. In fact, this still feels somewhat abstract to me, though I’ve been doing my best to make it seem more real by reading New Zealand news. It seems to be a country beset by fires, murders earthquakes and a lot of bad driving. Maybe I should change my news sources.

In the midst of all of this, I have to write another paper and do a stint in Rome for the IASPM conference (International Association for the Study of Popular Music). While nowhere nearly as taxing as the Montreal event which happened in 2003, this is still soaking up my time, which might also be one of the reasons the move doesn’t seem so real yet.

Last week, I gave my final lecture/paper at Humboldt. It went reasonably well, but I’ve become more attuned to the bizarre East/West politics that are the burden of the place. This mainly has to do with language (many of the Ossies are uncomfortable with speaking English and feel that they’re being judged by their peers when they do try to speak it), but also disciplinary boundaries. The department is made up of anthropologists and sociologists and historians. Not necessarily the oddest mix, but you’d be surprised at how it plays out socially. I found the graduate students the most interesting people to hang with in the end, as most of them lived near me, and save for one faculty member (Rolf Lindner), were the only ones who appeared interested in what I was working on. They proved good guides to places around the city, its history, the lingering politics of East/West Berlin and the machinations of the department’s politics. Fun insights for someone who doesn’t really have to stick around.

Shortly after that, my friend Jimmy (aka Marky P) arrived. On a two-day tour, I had to be economical, and without a bike this was almost tricky. Of course, the weather was crap, so that just made everything a little trickier. We did manage a few touristy things, but not without their hitches, though. We had plans to hit the Olympic Stadium, which given its Western location, made the most sense in terms of starting points, working our way back to Mitte. On a sweltering hot day, it struck us as somewhat odd that this train was packed with so many young people. I was thinking there might be a show on at the garden near the stadium (last time I was there, it was Udo Lindenberg). As we detrained, it became clear that the show was actually in the Olympic Stadium and that in fact it was U2. I haven’t really had any interest in the band for nearly two decades now, so felt kinda chuffed that we had no idea they were in town. A nice affirmation that you’ve made the tastefully correct decision to leave them behind (upon his arrival, Jimmy had realized that Zooropa was a reference to Zoologischer Station).

So no stadium for us. Me in my tour guide brilliance had decided we could salvage the day by heading to the Funkturm, the radio tower in Charlottenburg. Jimmy being an old radio hand, this made the most sense. From there, you can get a great view of the city and you can avoid the tourists that otherwise clot the Fernsehturm (TV Tower, in Alexanderplatz). I had been there a week earlier, and thought this a great way to finish our afternoon. Naturally, it, like most of Berlin, was now under renovation. Scuppered, we headed back to Mitte, where we bided our time until the evening’s events got under way.

We headed to Kotbusser Tor in Kreuzberg and found the club (actually a wedding hall) on Skalitzer Str. where we were to hear Kevin Blechdom, Planning to Rock and Electronicat. It ended up an evening of painful amateurism, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in ages. Beseiged by a host of technical difficulties, it was a failure even by Berlin standards. We left after a few hours, after finding out that Blechdom would not be on until at least 3 AM.

We did this in the midst of the London bombings which put us a bit on edge, Jimmy in particular becuase he has mates there. A scary moment and one that Berlin/Germany is determined not to see happen here. There was a visible increase in police traffic and muzzled German shepherds. Now that Schröder looks set to lose the election to a pro-Bushite, things may change, though a full swing to the right may not be exactly what Germans will go for. I know people in Berlin are nervous (talk of a tax hike on consumer goods, etc.).

Anyway, if I failed Jimmy, I owed you that those glaring Glasgow omissions.

I’ve spent the better part of my last few days here doing some interviews, some reading, but also getting in some crazy cycling. I plan to get out to the edges of Treptower Park next, where there are some nice bike paths (Marc F and I did one side of the Spree last year; this time, it might be good to get onto the other side, not least because it has one of these).

This week a Ping Pong Country Night, a sort of farewell party where I’ll be DJing, the arrival of one Matt Stahl, a meeting with other Flickr-ites, a paper to be written, the room to be packed up, some sights to be seen, and then a goodbye for now (really, it only seems temporary, as I’m back here in January).

For no reason whatsoever, and certainly not in the spirit of being thematically relevant (though it is in another sense), here is a brassy cover of one of the best television intros ever penned. I’m not spinning yarns, or anything else, here, though it does go on a bit. The original was rather efficiently compact.

Iso G.

General | 2 Comments »