An evening with the master of the surreal

  Thank you KW (Kunst Werke) in Berlin. Jodorowsky himself was in attendance to present El Topo and the start of a Jodorowsky film fest.

Thanks to Diane Vincent for the photo from that night.

www.kw-berlin.de

  Amazing evening. It was more than sold out so they opened up the second floor which overlooked the event stage. I got there to late to be on the main floor so was upstairs. There was room for one row of people to see down and everyone else had to improvise. So benches and chairs were moved so we could look over the first row of people and down to Jodo. What an amazing sight from up top, everyone was sitting on the floor in a semi circle around him with us up top in more of a hemi-spherical motif. He is a great speaker (in English no less) and although it was a little hard to hear everything, he was very entertaining.

  He was asked about his thoughts on Dali. He recalled how his mother hated the way his father ate. One time while they were having eggs and as he sat between them, she picked up her plate and threw it at him, he dodged it. The eggs hit the wall and he saw a Dali painting in the dribbling eggs on the wall. Something to that effect anyway:)

  I wish I had my camera, he was very animated and passionate in his speech, at one point posing in a crucifixion pose.

  The evening was full of anecdotes and humourous moments. At one point he had all the guys grunting and all the girls humming, separately and together.

Andy

Metropolis in the Metropolis

Pardon me a minute while I geek out. I just got back from seeing the recently restored version of Metropolis in Berlin in an East German era huge single screen theatre (the Kino International on Karl-Marx Allee). Title cards were in Deutsch but I could figure out the gist anyway as I kinda know the story:)

  The poster isn't bad but the film is great. There's a lot more footage showing the deeds of Joh Fredersen's assistant "The Thin Man". With this being a 35 mm print and on the big screen I was able to spot a few more details in some cityscapes. The eye composite was incredible, each eye was photographed with that unique close up light rig so each eye had a great circular reflection. There are STILL some scenes missing but this is far better than previous versions.

Andy

U-Bahn vs Skytrain

Was anyone else disappointed by the size of vancouvers new Skytrain line just in terms of the size of the trains and the stations? I thought the stations should at least be longer to meet future needs. Apparently the Berlin system thinks along those lines and has trains a touch longer than the Canada Line. Looking down the length of the train as it snakes through that roller coaster tube reminds me of the scene of Paris bending from Inception.

Andy

May 1st in Berlin

So I went from moving into my place one day to a massive street party the next day. May 1st in Berlin is amazing, not to be missed.

Oranienstrasse in the heart of TRUE Kreuzberg. This street is awesome, a great collection of bars, cafe's, turkish cafe's and clubs, what Bergmann used to be I think. Many streets around this whole sector were closed to traffic and turned into a huge outdoor club. The smoke is either kabap shops cooking on bbq's in the street or residents doing the same to make a few bucks or bars with smoke machines and pulsing beats.

These stages are setup on every other intersection with many different kinds of bands. These guys were very heavy death metal.

This bar/cafe was an awesome quiet spot to stop and enjoy a beer and doodle in the sketchbook just 2 days before. Today they have huge amps and speakers with a DJ spinning club beats to a crowd who were very much into it!

Right above all that action.

Pink elephants, unicorns its all good here, a bit crowded though.

  So, no this isn't the traditional May day riot event nor even anything to do with the meaning of the day. This massive street party was (apparently) cooked up by the local government and police, I think in an attempt to calm the streets from violent ideas and to make it a party instead. I heard many distant booms and bangs the night before and there were armies of police vans lining the streets EVERYWHERE on the way to this party. Clearly something happened somewhere but I didn't find it.

Andy

My haus in Berlin :)

I'm in my place and its amazing, perhaps a bit too posh but I'm not about to look the horse in the smacker etc. Its on the very popular Bergmannstrasse which is kind of like 4th Ave and Alma in Vancouver or Oak Bay village in Victoria. Except with renovated old European buildings loads of tourists in cafe's and bars and strolling musician's. As I write the same guy with the souped up bike and huge sound system has just ridden by with the thumping club tunes throbbing. Its best to get away from Bergmann and go back a few blocks. Around the corner there's an independent music shop next to that is a Great cafe with seating above and behind the counter and next to that is a great little comic shop. There's a wonderful neighbourhood bar with small things to eat. Today there was a musician playing an upright piano positioned in the middle of the seating area at a blocked off street. Glass of wine perched on top :)

The street from my window at about 18h (6pm).

180 view of the shared backyard from Jessica's (my roommate's) room and our balcony.

Jessica's room with the balcony

My room, that thing on the left is my dresser! Hey look, lots of room for friends to camp out if they're in town:) We have the couch although its difficult to sit on let alone sleep, though there is an extra mattress but its a single. Still, its a free place to sleep.

The Kitchen is very Turkish with a double boiler tea kettle and bench seating with tassel cushions on the wall. Very nice dishwasher will help keep the peace between us both I think.

The bathroom with our washing machine and shower/jacuzzi tub!

View down to the shared garden with a place to park the bike, BBQ and a sand box for the cats... or the kids.

So I have one room all to myself which is almost as big as my place in Vancouver and yet the rent is half as much for the use of a total apartment about four times that size. Vancouver you got a lot a splaining-to-do.

Andy