Big Day Out (of Forest Hill)

i can't believe this will be my lastnight in Forest Hill. Tomorrow is the big day out of there. No more Sarff London.

Big day in the new flat in Bethnal Green. Back to the East end. "Rick-aaaay!!" Close to Brick Lane and all amenities.

Bearded Princesses

Speaking of bearded Princesses, I bet with Davide that the new (utter bland crap) Bananarama single wouldn't go top 20. If I lose I have to shave, and stop using smileys on our daily email exchange.

And speaking of bets, I placed my first official bet on a bookie. I bet £10 that Antony And The Johnsons' album will win the Mercury Award (14/1), and another £10 that MIA will (10/1).

[14/1 means that I'll get £14 for each £1 I bet plus the £10 I bet]

I've started playing poker (not for money yet) and am becoming addicted. Some guys at work are setting up a poker night, so I have started to imagine myself with big black bags under my eyes, a cigar in my mouth, glass of whisky or bourbon on one hand and playing chips on the other. Like Sharon Walker would say, "it's good I don't have an addictive personality". Gamblers Anonymous here I come.

Oh the Scandinavians

The ikea delivery guy arrived 20 minutes after 8pm. Even after I had paid 20 pounds extra (£60 in total) for the delivery to be done after hours (6pm-8pm). Out of Humanity, I even had to help the guy carrying the matress up the stairs, he was by himself.

Bloody Scandinavians! They're only good to look at. And make music. They're probably very good in bed. Just wait until I get my hands on one of them!

Anyway I have a new matress, will do the pea thing, just to see how much of a Princess I am. A bearded Princess.

crap day

Woke up late, missed the train, the bus took half an hour, it's a dark and rainy day. Have to wait for my ikea delivery tonight on the new flat, and still have to call BT to cancel my landline and broadband [i'm scared].
Basically it will be a crap day.

london london

what's this with bombings every week now? how annoying! stop it!

Look What You Do, Oh Ruby Blue

How amazing is this woman. (Rhetorical question of course)
Ms Róisín Murphy (pronounced Row-shin) gave to the people of London 2 hours of music from her album and EPs. Everything was delivered with her usual magnificent stage persona.
The 7 musicians on stage transformed the album's minimalistic Matthew-Herbert-inspired sound into music for stage consumption: louder and stronger.

Róisín played the catchiest songs from the album, "sow into you", "ruby blue", the new single (out next week) "if we're in love", and the absolutely fantastic and a bit Moloko-y "ramalama (bang bang)" which Tom and I decided it should be the next single from the album, "dear diary", well basically all the others.

The show finished with her saying goodbye while singing "the closing of the door". Lovely.

Everyone was expecting something brilliant, like the album is. I don't think anyone went away thinking they had got anything less than utter brilliance.

[well it should've had a little bit less of percussion in some of the songs, but apart from that, v v good.]

2005 Nationwide Mercury Prize Albums of the Year

Antony And The Johnsons i am a bird now
Bloc Party silent alarm
Coldplay x&y
The Go! Team thunder, lightning, strike
Hard-Fi stars of cctv
Kaiser Chiefs employment
KT Tunstall eye to the telescope
M.I.A. arular
The Magic Numbers the magic numbers
Maximo Park a certain trigger
Polar Bear held on the tips of fingers
Seth Lakeman kitty jay

The result will be announced on the 6th of September.
I think M.I.A. will win. I'd like that.

Suzy O

Loads of references afterwards, here is the girl.
Susana is her name. Suzy O for some of us. Ms Cunha for you.

She is also the companion of my Berlin travelling, friend from Lisbon and London, brilliant photographer and photojournalist-to-be. Funfairs beware!

bonjour tristesse

Still Berlin... Just to mention that the Wohnhaus Schlesisches Tor aka Bonjour Tristesse is a building in the area of Kreuzberg that kept Susana and me quite intrigued about it. It is amazing in its shape and also very dry, very concrete solid cement grey.

As Susana came to discover the building was in fact created by the Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza, the man responsible for the magnificent Cultural Centre of Belem (CCB) and the underground station of Baixa/Chiado, in Lisbon, as well as other buildings in Santiago, Amsterdam, Barcelona. All over Europe, basically.

gutted

2005.07.14 - London - 12:00

Two-minute silence in honor of the 7-J terrorist attacks' victims.

Berlin - Highlights

Fascinating points about Berlin

[Note that this is a view of a fascinated newbie that spent only 5 days in the city]

The Wall
How amazing and unconceivable (for most of us Europeans) is it to live in a city that was once divided physically and intellectually speaking - East vs. West, Communism vs. Capitalism.

The marks weren't very evident from a tourist point of view, as both sides have blended quite smoothly. It was in fact difficult to realise what had been where. We were told to look at the lamps on the streets, but even so, it was hard to tell.


The graffiti
when did the Authorities realised that it was a problem? I don’t think Berlin would be Berlin at all without the scribbles and doodles that are everywhere, and I mean everywhere: walls, inside and top of buildings, monuments, trains, etc.

At first it looks appaling but then it just feels comfortable and non threatening, it just becomes something that belongs there. [Primeiro estranha-se, depois entranha-se]


The cool and relaxed European look

Berliners are the new Barcelonese, not much attitude, everything just looks natural on them. Could be a very superficial opinion but I felt like the first times I went to Barcelona and thought that most people look too kool for skool. [I then realised the people there were all looks'n attitude].

I absolutely loved the people and shops in Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, and Friedrichschain.

There were loads of crazy people on the streets. I guess the Wall must have caused a huge impact on Berliner's lives throughout History. I can only imagine the emotional rollercoaster it must have been for some East Berliners to dwell on the rise and downfall of the way to look at a Capitalist regime.

Oh, and there were a few Christiane F look-alikes too.




The public transport
Their public transport system works the whole night over the weekend – and I mean non-stop. The overground and underground trains are always running frequently.

Safety
where are the groups of kids in hoodies? Where are the gangs of loud drunken people? Oh yeah, this is not dear old London, it’s Berlin. Probably because we were totally unaware of any dangers or what are considered dangers in Berlin, and because we didn’t understand the language, Suzy O and I felt quite relaxed and safe at all times.

7/7

We were safe in Berlin when the terrorist attacks were happening in London.

Berlin - Intro

2005 July 6th - 10th

Berlin was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise.



In Europe no one really gives a toss about Germany or the Germans. They are rich and speak a language full of sounds that no one can imitate. [If you're British, then you just can't imitate any other sounds than the ones of the English language]. It is a country that no one ever plans to visit for a holiday, unless you wanna do a bit of whips-and-chains and leather sex tourism in Berlin.

As well and very unfortunately, as a nation, they haven't been very nice in the past, and that as any other prejudice, will always be there to speak against them. Even nowadays, it's not unusual the association between the words "Nazi" and "German" or "Germany".



I feel as if the Germans were still trying to get away from the stigma of what the country represented during WW2. The amount of Jewish memorials and in-your-face references might look a bit excessive, if remembering the Holocaust could ever be an excess.

[Going one step further, if the African powers were as strong as the Jewish ones, the Western world and Lisbon especially would be full of memorials remembering the systematic human rights violations that occurred over 4 centuries, with slave trade.]

Anyway, if I had had any prejudices about the Germans, they would have completely disappeared around my Barcelona years when I had the opportunity to share space with some Erasmus Germans. And that was brilliant.

[This chronicle is drifting now: it should be about my holiday in Berlin. It's an interesting subject though and I will get back to it soon.]

Berlin before the wall came down

How the city was before November 9th 1989.

[Susana, I know now what was where:
East Berlin: Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, and Friedrichschain.
West Berlin: Tiergarten, Kreuzberg, Schoneberg and Charlottenburg.]


How the city was right after the end of WW2.

Berlin

The chronicle will follow.