Thursday 25 February 2010

Hamburg und ich haben gefunkt

I've realised how much of a fine art making window frames for an architectural model is and is quite possibly the most concentration consuming task I have experienced in practice. I am finding myself steeped in more work as the weeks go by and it's been an invaluable learning curve managing my widening responsibilities.

I came back to London last weekend, in rather undercover fashion, to pick up my iMac and Nikon D80 (which I have missed dearly). It was a pretty hectic weekend and as soon as I landed in The Big Smoke I already accepted that it was going to be impossible to see everyone I wanted to and do everything I wanted to do. Time restrictions aside it was the first time I had seen no snow on the streets and been in weather above 0C. I played the weekend by ear and ultimately met with those who slotted into my improvised minute-by-minute schedule.

However I didn't feel as if I was missing London and in a conversation with Alex last week about moving away from our respective home capital cities (Alex moved out of Paris 6 years ago) it was surmised to me that perhaps the longer and more frequent I am away the lesser my affinity is for London. What is certain however, especially with the arrival of milder winter weather (the ice is finally starting to melt!), is that Hamburg has grown on me and I look forward to what the next few months hold...

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Triple header

THURSDAY 11.02.09:
Went to a gig at a student halls of residence in which one of my friends (Alex, from France) was playing in a rock band, reminiscent of a rowdy teenage racket-fest with a Tischfußball session ensuing at the back of the common room. The after party took place back at Alex's former student halls a few blocks away. A bit of a raucous affair, with a crate of beer on the house to boot, and somehow managing to DJ with a non-backlit iPod screen with the room lights turned off.

FRIDAY 12.02.09:
Birdland Jazzclub with Karin Hammar (trombone, Swedish blonde) and her band performing songs from her new album, 'Everyday Magic'. It was the first time I've ever been to a jazz club, which I have much longed for, and it was such stirring stuff that I felt inspired to sketch the members of the band on a paper pad and got them signed by each of them at the end.

SATURDAY 13.02.09:
Smallville presents MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE at Ego. Being a big fan of this deep house/soul/techno DJ for a while now I could finally judge for myself why he's been lauded amongst many circles for the past year or so now. A masterful display of dancefloor grooves.

They say that good things come to those who wait, especially in the past quiet month or so, and this past weekend managed to fulfil my musical needs on all fronts and then some...

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Birthday in Berlin

(I'm a bit pushed for time this week to write in prose, so here's what I wrote in my journal re: my 23rd birthday weekend; Fri.05.02 - Sun.07.02)

LUNCH WITH THOMAS & ANNA, ENTRECOTE & PANACOTTA.
1600 MITFAHR NACH BERLIN. ARRIVED 1900. RED LABEL & COKE @ BAR.
MET UP WITH GRANT TAYLOR & CHRIS MOGER. BURGER & BEER.
BACK TO GRANT'S NEW FLAT, DANZIGER STRASSE.
TISCHFUßBALL @ TOM & DENISE'S. BLACK MAMBA (YIKES!).
TO BERGHAIN. QUEUED FOR 1.5 HOURS. REJECTED. GUTTED.
TAXI TO WATERGATE. REJECTED AGAIN. DONER KEBAB @ BAGHDAD'S.
BACK TO GRANT'S 0500 SATURDAY MORNING.
1300 WOKE UP. TEA & BAGUETTE w. CHEESE.
PERGAMON MUSEUM (STUNNING COLLECTION OF ANCIENT ROME/GREEK ARTEFACTS & ISLAMIC ART).
HARDWAX RECORDS, KOTTBUSSER TOR. TENSNAKE & MCDE VINYLS & INFINITI: GAME ONE VINYL SIGNED BY THE MAN HIMSELF, JUAN ATKINS! MIXING ON THE DECKS IN-STORE...
LUZIA BAR w. GRANT'S ACQUAINTANCES. ANDREA'S FAREWELL w. ANNA, GAVIN & CREW.
CLUB DE REPUBLIQUE. DENISE'S FAREWELL.
ICON. DRUM & BASS w. BROOKES BROTHERS UNTIL 0400 SUNDAY MORNING.
1230 GOT UP. WAFFLES. FAIL. CREPES @ FLEAMARKET. HOT DRINK @ CAFE.
SOUPANOVA. SOUP & SMALL CHANGE. FAIL AGAIN.
BACK TO GRANT'S TO PICK UP STUFF. TO HAUPTBAHNHOF.
1900 MITFAHR ZURÜCK NACH HAMBURG. 2130 BACK IN HAMBURG. 2230 BACK HOME IN OTHMARSCHEN.
ECHT KLASSE GEBURTSTAG WOCHENENDE...

(and I've just recovered from being ill as a result)

Grant, Chris & I at Luzia Bar, Sat.06.02.10

Monday 1 February 2010

Alster & Aqua-crunk

Snow is persisting here in Hamburg (and indeed the whole of Germany) and I've forgotten what it's like to walk on dry streets. Last Saturday morning in fact, I went down to the Alster lake in the city centre to find that hundreds of people were actually walking & bob-sleighing on the lake which had frozen to a thickness of 20cm over the past couple of weeks. I gladly slid onto the ice to experience this quite unique event in the city.

I was drafted in yesterday (Sunday) to do some work for an important client meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) for a private house design which has seen us exhaust tens of possibilities to no avail. Once again I'm crafting models to millimetre precision under the hot blaze of two desk lamps. I finished at 2130hrs and decided to have a little dose of fun and seeing as my acquaintances in Hamburg have their heads stuck in books at this busy time of the academic year, I went on my bill to Golden Pudel (an tiny eccentric club nearby the Fishmarkt) where Rustie was laying down some bass bangers. To see Rustie aqua-crunking it, wonky hip-hopping it and UK funky 2-stepping it was just what I needed after the past few silent weekends...January passed by like a whisper, I'm hoping for something more in the spring months to come...