We got invited to this model agency party … and Daniel from 12345678mambo Inc. who is one of our artist friends was on the board. He recently did a project asking models about there life stories in a certain way with a twist. More about that later on. If you need a model check out Mocca Models. If you need Daniel check out 12345678mambo Inc.
Ok ok we kind of write a lot of things going on in Eastberlin however there is a lot or maybe even more going on in the west as well. So why dont we start of with a cute little down to earth fair priced original pizza place called “Pizza Factory”. Just get off at Bahnhof Zoo walk down the Kurfürstendamm and then … well find the adress yourself you will see it on the picture below!
Friday we went to the opening of Torstr. 166. An art exhibition powered by HORNBACH – one of the german Home Depots. It is a nice exhibition and shows that there is actually money to be earned in Berlin by Berlin artists. Check it out. The exhibition lasts till the 12th of october. Torstr. 166
Front of Torstr. 166
Yesterday evening, Berlin was a place just a stone’s throw away from Oahu, Hawaii – at least as far as the spectacular sunset was concerned. When you looked up from street level, you saw people staring at the sky in amazement from their 3rd-floor balconies. Me, I stared up in amazement from a small boat taking a wedding party of about 35 guests along the river Spree in an evening cruise. Those river cruises sound extremely no-go touristy, but every Berliner who has ever overcome his cool and taken one, e.g. forced by visiting parents, will contest that it’s a really striking experience – touristy or not.
In any case: The fact that their wedding day was crowned by such a heart-rendingly beautiful spectacle created by sun and clouds on this autumn evening was pure luck for the couple, Katja and Rainer. However, their choice for that night’s dinner had nothing to do with luck. They had invited a cook they knew from back when to create the wedding dinner in a Kaffeehaus called Zimt & Zucker on Schiffbauerdamm. The cook had brought his team of aides, and when the boat arrived back at the mooring right in front of the restaurant, an array of Amuse Gueules were already waiting for us.
And this is where the story really starts. What followed was an evening of life-changing food consumption (LCFC).
Those Amuse Gueules consisted of: Trout caviar on apple puree and toast; egg-plant crème with pomegranate seeds on home-made sour dough crust bread; and white wine sauerkraut on Pumpernickel with a cumin-honey creme fraiche. Frankly, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The taste of the sweet and sour fruity apple puree with just a hint of cinnamon, combined with the salty caviar on the heartily spiced toast, some fresh herbs added too… words fail me here, I literally felt tears of joy coming to my eyes.
I’m not going to go through every dish that followed. Suffice to say this. We started dinner at 7.30 p.m., and when I left the party at 2 a.m., some of the guests were still having dessert and/or cheese. In between were 6 hours of the finest, most original, most passionate food I’ve had in – what? Ages? My entire life? I have to mention one more dish: a Loup de Mer fillet, broiled in the skin, with a Sechuan pepper-corn flour crust, accompanied by warm spinach with pine seeds and catalan tomato-garlic bread. Dear god! I went over to the kitchen to beg for another portion, my entire table having asked me to beg for them too, but alas, there was no more.
And the desserts! Lord in High Heaven! An iced prune mousse so full of flavours… fresh waffles so juicy and sweet… a creme brulee… and the cheese plate – only the finest, most intense Italian and French cheeses… Do you know the feeling when someone gently strokes your skin with a feather and how that titillating leaves your skin very delicately sensitive? That’s how my palate felt after dinner last night, and still feels like today.
Anyway, here’s the catch. After dinner, at something like 1.30 a.m., I went into the kitchen to throw myself at the feet of the cook, Wayne’s World-style – “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy”. We talked a while, and it turned out that this man does not work at a restaurant at the moment – he used to run one in Prenzlauer Berg but had to give up a few months ago. The name of this cook is Oliver Sartorius, and I’VE GOT HIS DAMN MOBILE NUMBER!!
That very night, me and the other guys present at the dinner started to plot that cook’s future. We knew we just HAD to do something – someone who cooks so fantastically just HAS to be supported, promoted, revered, given any chance to do it again! My suggestion was to create an invitation-only dinner club around Oliver’s talent. Five, six people throwing in a couple 100 Euros every month and inviting selected individuals to clandestine locations with an adequate kitchen. “Selected individuals” would not be chosen by income or social status but by their ability to savour (so no vegetarians – sorry). After a while, the word will spread and people will KILL to be among the invited.
I will keep you posted.
So I’ve produced a MTV-aimed music video for them. As a director and camera man, I managed to get my favourite Berlin photo and video artist, Boris Eldagsen – http://www.eldagsen.com. A cute and very talented actress, Helen, contributed too – http://www.myspace.com/helenfurness. The video will hopefully be out in October.
Unfortunately, Boris had to cater for a visitor from Australia while Helen is currently in India, so they couldn’t come to yesterday’s Jerx concert at Knaack Club Berlin. However, who came was one of our favourite serial founders and Social Stuntmen, Philip E! He, among other things, does his best to ruin his health with fucked-up but wildly funny stuff like http://www.drinkthering.com. Unlike Philip, who has been living in Berlin for a few years only, Knaack Club has been around forever – http://www.knaack-berlin.de – I think they already existed in DDR times!
The concert was great as always. The guys have been playing for years, and whenever let loose on stage they give it their all and everything. They’d be powerful enough to rock any stadium, so a small concert club like Knaack is no challenge. Or maybe it is – actually, what I particularly respect about the guys is that they always play full throttle, no matter if it’s for a thousand people or for twenty. They make the crowd sing, jump and dance – they’re not just musicians, they’re show people too; they want everybody to have a great time. But they’re honest about it! No posers but a band that aims to play great, loud, powerful music and rock you to the bone!
Afterwards, backstage, guitarist Andii complained about broken tubes in his guitar amp. Singer Vindaloo explained that for a change, his T-Shirt was soaked not from sweat but because drummer Joey had spit a mouthful of beer at him. Harii, the other guitarist, showed off his new Gibson Les Paul guitar that’s indeed beautiful but just too bulky for my taste – me, I recently sold my Les Paul to a dear friend.
The guys are off to touring Austria for 3 weeks now – their latest album, a “Best Of”-compilation, has just entered the Austrian charts – details at http://www.myspace.com/jerxcc.
Yesterday we went to find Dino. Have you seen him? Also see FINDINGDINO.COM
Many Berliners didn’t want it (“too big, too expensive, too American, spoils the view, too un-Berlin-ish”), but now it’s there: Berlin’s latest and greatest Auditorium for concerts and sports events, dubbed “O2 World”. Word on the street is that the formerly English, now Spanish Mobile Network Operator put in excess of 70 million euros into this building. And on Friday a week ago, it was the opening night!
On that occasion, the O2 guys had hired a minor local band to present their latest album. I didn’t really know who they were, and the album title “Death Magnetic” sounds silly to me, but there we go. Apparently, all the money went into the building, so there was none left to get a classy act for the opening.
Thankfully, this was reflected in the minuscule ticket price. 10 euros were enough to buy you in – under these circumstances it was no wonder that 17.000 showed up. For a tenner, you don’t even get into the shabbier discotheques anymore. If you ask me, the band extended their welcome a bit though – they played two hours. Astonishingly, the crowd went ballistic as soon as the first guy of that band entered the stage that was set up like a boxing ring right in the middle of the hall. The sound could have been better, though it was certainly loud enough – but then, it was the first concert on the first night of that hall, so you gotta give those guys a break.
Funnily, I thought I had heard some of the songs before somewhere – songs like “Until It Sleeps” or “Master of Puppets” rang familiar. Probably the band just covered them, but they did so not badly at all. Not badly at all indeed.
So how is that latest addition to Berlin’s lineup of big-time venues? In size and appearance it looks like we can only pray and hope the “Arrivals” hall of that new Berlin airport, BBI, might look one day. If Tegel airport had such a spacious and convenient, if sterile, building, no-one would think of closing it. Facilities and amenities are great – even with 17k visitors, there were hardly any queues at the loo or the many food outlets. The seating is somewhat uncomfortable for big-assed people though. And for that band – well, I guess they weren’t too bad for the opening night after all. They too sounded pleasingly…
…new.
Alrighty so we went to the Wall-E premiere last night. It`s a movie for adults as well as children. There were A LOT of children though:
Wall-E Premiere
The movie is cute. It`s basicly about NOT littering and NOT eating unhealthy because you will end up fat one day. You might also call it Matrix as well as “I am legend” animated for children. So the usual Disney approach watch & learn. That did not stop the guys from Disney to serve hot dogs, and the worst: meat balls and noodle salad in cans – obviously throw away cans.
Premiere
We missed Wall-E on the red carpet by just a few minuts – otherwise we would have given him a Berlin Loves You sticker but he had to fly on to Japan.
But we saw the Disney guys and the voices and people behind the movie that called themselves Nerds.
Check Wall-E out it`s a nice movie now that its getting colder …
… can be understood as “mother the man with the coke is there”. It`s an old traditional song by Falco who is an austrian singer. Well winter seems to be coming faster than everyone things but people are already ordering their coke for the winter. Just saw one of the guys (that obviously likes to look after women at work) doing his delivery in front of the BERLIN LOVES YOU “headquarters” – we have central heating though.
Want to know more about Falco? Well check out this remix from the song:
Well sometimes these art opening party gallery things end up a little early for some people. Welcome to our new category Berlin F***s You!
