little girl in big city

Uuh.

2008-09-04T05:35:00.004-04:00

"So, Congresswoman Schultz, do you think Palin is using her family in this campaign to ...? I mean, there's one with Down Syndrome, there's one.... teen pregnancy...Do you think she's using them?"

Dear Mr. Larry King, I do not support McCain's candidacy or his VP nominee Palin, but this is just very very dull journalism.

if i was kanye...

2008-08-30T21:03:00.002-04:00

so kanye blogged about MY FELLOW BERLINER PETER FOX's solo debut here. I feel proud like mommy.

tonight was the "lange nacht der museen", a beautiful event where a 100 museums are open until 2am. to all berlin readers: i beg you, go and see barbara bloom at mgb. it is so much more than worth it. also, hiroshi sugimoto at neue nationalgalerie. very necessary.

it's been way too long

2008-08-11T06:47:00.005-04:00

... since the last post. my suitcases are still unpacked though so the delay is explained and maybe partly justified.

no news here, i'm broke, i'm unemployed, i need vacation and i need something to make my reality look a little more pink. basically, i guess, there's nothing to complain about, it's just that i'm a huge unorganized mess right now, for a month now, to be exact, and i'm bored, and that doesn't feel good at all.
what i've been doing: drinking, cooking, re-arranging my mom's kitchen, staying up late, drinking, eating, walking, driving, reading, drinking, looking for jobs, missing ny, hoping, watching cnn, avoiding dubbed tv, drinking, consuming music, dancing, trying to re-collect old friends' numbers cause my old cell's dead.

olympics, i didnt even make it to watch the opening ceremony, and haven't watched any of it since. sad, too. today i made it to follow the swimming tournaments, and i got wowed by michael phelps' dolphin-like diving talents. wow.

i was watching larry king the other day, the subject of the show was "change your mind, change your life". among old talker's guests was dr. wolf aka dr quantum. they were talking about how people are able to control their brainwaves, and thus control their conscience, their thoughts, their feelings and become aware of their consciousness. it sounded interesting, until dr. quantum gave how-to-examples. he said something like "if you're feeling depressed, just switch perspectives, and ask yourself 'who is depressed?', and you'll see, it's not actually you who's depressed".......i prefer not being my own shrink, it's only going to make me more sad.

The Grand Apple

2008-06-22T13:35:00.025-04:00

New York to me is....

- Fanatic Promotion, Inc.
- bridges
- money money money
- traffic
- in-your-face
- any food possible at any time possible
- DELISH cupcakes
- try Katz's pastrami
- real neighborhoods
- amazing 24/7 infrastructure
- rats, mice, roaches and dirt
- no trees
- central park = many and only trees
- diversity and segregation are next door neighbors
- kids in bushwick eating double cheeseburgers for breakfast
- too much cocaine
- summer-puddles of condensed air conditioning water
- pick after your dog! / no honking!
- (80% of the) New Yorkers (that I've met) do not like the West Coast (except for SF)
- so do a lot of West Coasters that came to NY for this reason
- backyard BBQs and rooftop quality time
- Delis
- Yankees, Mets, Knicks
- Berlin - under extreme conditions
- escape for the weekend
- not as fashionable as seen in movies, but much more real and lovable
- NYU students as seen around university campus:

girls, often appearing in pairs, in leggings, yoga mats on back, STRAND cotton
shopping bag -- and a lot of flipflops
sassy girls with crazy tans, sparkling earrings and marc jacobs bags (didn't you just take on a loan for college??)
plaid shirt wearing skaters and skinny jeans wearing hipsters (also spotted in w.burgh)
ostentatious sunglasses in retro and new wave style. equally worn by males and females
young people, most likely females, walking around with a trader joe's bag full of groceries, with nothing but a wallet in their hands (no handbag/purse)
ultimate summer student appearance: (short) shorts, preferably purple, grey hoodie w/ purple NYU print, STRAND bag, flipflops, sunglasses, headband, books under arm, starbucks coffee left hand, cellphone right hand
they might provoke eyeball-rolling, sighing, mocking, and ugh-ing, but these students all contribute to the city's charm.

- Columbia Campus: one of the nicest locations I have been to, and by far, the most picturesque campus I have ever seen. very dead poets society.
- Chelsea Piers, Chelsea, West & Greenwich Village: if ever I get to live in Manhattan, I beg to make it here.
- a brownstone that i will never be able to afford.

New York is a fiendish love affair that you can't let go off. New York will swallow you, and capture you. New York is highly addictive, and unbearable in the most beautiful way possible. It's going to choke you just to be the one to give you the air to breathe again. New York is so very confusing, it forces you to think as clear as never before.

sunday, sun-day, sundae

2008-06-15T17:08:00.007-04:00

so, greece is out. no personal comment on that except for they deserved to be kicked out.

" 'Unfortunately -- and this is not new -- we don't score goals,' Rehhagel said." (CNN.com)

yeah, man, that's how you win it, great attitude, rock on.... ugh, they played like tranquilized hippos, these morons!
germany is still in the game, we'll see tomorrow, but i have faith in them.
turkey is definitely in for the quarterfinals, and it makes me so very proud of these turks.

i went to a Mets game on friday, it was suberb! i am so eager to introduce this sport to lazy ass germany. we don't have a single baseball team! also, it was nice to go see the shea stadium before they tear it down. and i even had ice cream in a miniature Mets-Shea-Stadium-helmet, so good!

today is sunday. i've had this profound aversion to sundays ever since....i could develop aversions? but yah, i hate sundays. in germany, it's even worse, because basically all there is to do on a sunday is being a bum since pretty much everything is closed. but apart from that, it's a certain sunday atmosphere that makes me even more restless than i already am.

AAAND there came my rescue!!
our new roommate kevin works in a fishing company, and he just brought home 5pds of fresh halibut and another couple of pounds of jumbo shrimp (head on, yum). thus, i will goodbye you now, dear blog.

let me introduce to you: kevin and his halibut

2008-06-13T18:05:00.000-04:00

tim russert

New York State Of Mind

2008-06-07T10:50:00.004-04:00

the end of my stay is coming closer and closer, and i begin to realize how much i am going to miss this city, as much the opposite of an ideal place to live in this is, i have still come to love NY. of course, i had to realize all that in one of these dramatic moments, walking home over the williamsburg bridge, sunset, music in my ears, blah blah. but it really felt dramatic, it did! what brought me back to reality was my mother, "oh come on kid! you should appreciate the experiences you made there, some people never get to see new york!" - "...ugh, yeah mom, but this is not even what i'm talking about" - "rea, new york's not running away,you can still go back later!!" ...eh, just like back in high school.

i have two major things to still look forward to though: one is a last trip to LA (i really think i'm more of a west-coast person), and the other thing is a shopping spree. big time. i am going to treat myself by allowing me to spend the security deposit of my room, within the last 5 days, on whatever i like. which isn't too hard for me, in case you know me from pre-ny days.

oh, and also, this might not matter to any of the american readers of my blog, but to my european pals, IT'S UEFA 2008 TIME starting in a bit, with a, to me, pretty insignificant game (Suisse - Czech Rep). later tonight it's gonna be turkey-portugal. i owe my support to turkey, so i will be kirmizi-beyaz at heart. most importantly though, tomorrow: GERMANY - poland. and tuesday: GREECE - sweden. oh boy, this is going to be one exciting week. i get pretty crazy when it comes to games of "my" teams, so you better not cross my way in case you're supporting any of the not-capitalized teams (there i go already). either way, i will either be mocking your team for losing, or i will just be really, really mean because my team lost (which, of course, is not going to happen). yes, i am unbearable during soccer-season.

i read my brother's latest blog-entry just now, and it seems like he has a new nickname down in westafrica: mr. zero! his name is nil (pr: neal), but they heard it like "nill", therefore mister zero. love it.

i have to go and start picnic preps now. smooches.

if i was kanye...

2008-05-21T08:50:00.008-04:00

all my recent posts have consisted of copy&paste-actions, with a little personal note on the side (pretty west-ish.) also, the following pieces of "patio/BBQ furniture" are beautiful and not inexpensive (also, pretty west-ish) BUT when you discover items like these in the Sunday NY Times, what else can you think of than posting them on your blog and starting to plan your next gazillion dollar BBQ...

Beehive Pizza Oven (Terracotta), Williams-Sonoma, $2000

14 M.P.H. Cooler, Hammacher, $499

artwork of the weekend

2008-05-19T21:28:00.012-04:00

the cover of a record is important. trust me, i've seen my boss' reaction to bad artwork on covers. apart from that, it's known that you're not supposed to "judge a book by its cover", and the same thing, i guess, is applicable on records and their covers. but still the artwork can leave a long-lasting impression. to make it short, here are the five record covers that left quite enduring impressions during my walk through the record store's aisles this weekend:

Kraftwerk - "Trans-Europe Express"

Steppenwolf - "At Your Birthday Party"

Whatnauts - "Reaching For The Stars"

The Paupers - "Ellis Island"

Bionic Boogie - "Bionic Boogie"

i cannot help but love this

2008-05-16T16:49:00.001-04:00

oh dear, the graduate's lego version. so good.

misinformation. amen.

2008-05-14T09:02:00.003-04:00

i have no bugs. no worries. weird mosquito stings, yes, but no bugs.

i cannot help but love this

2008-05-13T08:03:00.001-04:00

home is where everything else is.

2008-05-13T07:27:00.001-04:00

i have bed bugs now. which means several itchy stings and mattresses either thrown away or wrapped up in plastic so the bugs choke and die. within a year, that is. i am seriously sick of it. this city is making me sick. now, i know bed bugs exist everywhere. so do mice and roaches. but why the bloody hell do they have to be massive in NY?! and not only this, but out of 11 fucking bedrooms in this freaking dorm i live in, all three pests choose my room to spread in. i've had roaches falling on my face from the ceiling at 4am, a mouse eat my ritter sport out of my bag (!!!) and now i have weird stings on my body. i just changed the sheets and cleaned my room a couple of days ago. why does this happen then? of course, i have to clean it again now. and i admit, you will find a little dust in my room, but why is it that when i have dust in berlin, the only things that happen are my mother telling me i have dust in my place, or finding myself waking up sneezing. here, it's one infestation following the other. i just wanna go back to where everything else is. anything that you can not find in NY. and that is a lot. no, new york doesn't have everything. in fact, all that new york has, is a big name, but little to offer.

ugh.

2008-05-06T15:54:00.000-04:00

i'm just so bad at keeping a blog up.

oh, indie

2008-05-06T15:36:00.000-04:00

independent music / independent labelled artists are so not indie anymore. maybe it's my (wrong?) perception of indie music, but when you're getting coverage by printed press like the rolling stone, fader, paste and the likes and your music is spread all over the "blogoverse" (yes, that's a term i learned at my job), you're not indie. apparently, being indie in the music business nowadays just involves not getting paid/ being (constantly) broke/ having to pay everything you do or produce yourself. and that sucks, doesn't it? why be indie then, because mainstream sucks? i dont get it. i love my job. but if i was more actively involved in everything i would (try to) make artists big. BIG. not big as in communicating music with a freelance blogger/musician/songwriter/performing artist/waiter from bedford ave. big meaning trying to get a video on MTV, coverage in the rolling stone and the NY times.

now, i don't have a problem with indie artists rising up in their career. and, seriously, when you start off as a neighborhood-band and have your first performance in the bar around the corner, this is great for you. and i believe if you keep on doing this for a while and then you start prducing your first record on your own budget in your bestie's little studio and all you can call yourself an independent musician. but when i hear my friends from germany asking me about artists that i (by accident) work for, i realize these bands are out there. and i'm glad to see that the music gets out. everywhere. music's a good thing. but please stop insisting on labelling yourself as indie when you're a fucking star in your scene and you have commercial support. ugh. just take it and run! of course, you're not gonna sell a million records nowadays...just because...and therefore you'll have to work more, and not start showing attitudes as soon as you get a review in VICE, but still. just stop being a fucking pseudo-modesto and tell people you make money of your music. everyone's struggling doing what their hearts desire.

and besides, labels were made for information's sake, not for coolness'.

oh, and also, if i see another music profile on myspace thats says "indie" in the top left corner under your name (you know, the one, where your music is supposed to be categorized - i know, oh, what a cruel word), i'll go crazy. indie's not a kind of music. indie is in your brain.

the office

2008-04-24T23:28:00.000-04:00

steve carrell's not my boss. my boss is josh. and he's great.
a lot of exceptional things happen at the office, everyday. i get to meet exceptional people. exceptionally stupid, exceptionally exhausting, and sometimes just... plain exceptional. just recently, a guy parked his car outside the office building, stepped out, walked a line on the sidewalk loudly counting 15 steps, looked up, released a relieving sigh, got back into his car and left. now, what do you say about that?

first time

2008-04-24T00:14:00.000-04:00

well. this is actually not my very first blog post. i started a blog when i first got to this city. i think i posted a picture there once in september 2007. and also i'm constantly managing our blog at fanatic. but still. now, it's kind of a first again.

i am doing this basically to gain some of my writing ...skill, if you want, back. i used to write a lot, but ever since i got to new york, i stopped. not on purpose. it just happened.

so here i am. i don't know how much time i have left in the US. i have my visa extension pending. meaning i could have to leave next week or next year.
pending is actually the right word. everything right now is pending. and i'm always waiting. i'm waiting for my visa. i'm waiting for a dear friend to come back from the west coast to enrich my life again. physically, that is, 'cause mentally, we're there. i'm waiting for news (approval or refusal) from a journalism school in hamburg, germany.
ugh. this is tiring. what i was actually gonna say is that this is a really exciting phase of my life, just because ever since i slipped into the visa-extension-dangling-phase i'm experiencing (or at least trying to) everything so intense. but now that i am articulating my thoughts, all this is is tiring. and exhausting. but hell, where is it gonna lead to, something's gotta come out of it. a lifetime decision? not sure. but something.

also, it is pretty late and i have a lot on my mind, so i dont know where to start.

i wanna do this blog, as mentioned above, to write some more. but also, i want to be able to remember more, and, even more important, to remember and to be more positive in general. i go to bed tired and grouchy almost every night, and i'm hoping by going through my day this way, i might be able to put an emphasis on my positive, pleasant moments of each day. don't get me wrong, i dont like analyzing things to a high degree, but it's that "first blog" thing. i have to make a clear start up. got it?

good night. see you tomorrow. i already feel better.

i am also thinking of making this some sort of a theme blog. or maybe not.