Sightseeing In Berlin

We took a beautiful and very informative (if you know German) river cruise on the Spree. Gorgeous weather, a beer in hand, an incredible mix of new and old (and I mean old) architecture made this hour on the water fantastic. Joe's right, we need to find a way to re-route the Chatahoochee through downtown Atlanta!

Joe at Brandenburg Tor (gate).

One of the many beach bars on the Spree River, as taken from our cool river cruise.

Joe and Beavis at the Berlin Wall (East Gallery, not that far from where Joe has been living).

Michelle Vanna White's the last time she was at the Berlin Wall-

could it have been that long ago? Nein!

Michelle and Ludacris both arrived from Atlanta in Berlin on the same day!

(check that date on the sticker across from Cappucino's in F-shain!)

German State Fair

I (Michelle) have stolen Joe's blog for the night- any "I" below is coming from Michelle's perspective.

Dawn and Yoon weren't the only ones to go to a state fair this weekend- Joe and I went to the Berlin State Fair today too. Ok, not a state fair, but some kind of fair with lots of bad but good food and of course for here in Germany, lots of beer. We had a 1/2 meter long brat, I got my chocolate covered banana, and we were tempted by the crepes, waffles and currywurst. We also went on a very tall ferris wheel where Joe demonstrated his love of heights (Adam, think Cedar Point roller coaster face) and his new hair look (a la Wolverine).

German Verification Tour

Michelle here, with Joe in Berlin! I have spent the last 24 hours verifying that yes, indeed Joe has been living here in Berlin and not making up all the prior postings. I have witnessed the F-shain grafitti, the dogs pooping in the street, the wonderful tortellini alla panna at Cappucino's, met Joe's friend Nero (2x, he just treated us to a drink for Joe's last night in Berlin), saw his Reuters building, looked for the parakeet (but no luck), saw the laundromat & its control panel, walked along the East Gallery (remaing portion of Berlin Wall), hung out at a beach bar, and was impressed that Joe got us all around Berlin knowing where he was going (even where to find a bathroom in downtown/Mitte). Berlin is a great city, full of cool neighborhoods (F-shain is one of the neatest I saw) with tons of sidewalk seating for all the cafes, bars and restaurants, lots of trees, and the best public transport. Weather has been perfect, making my (M's) short stay even more perfect. It has been great to see where Joe has called home for the past two months.

Thanks

Hey Guys, thanks for the postcards. It's been fun to get them and read the funny messages. Good to hear from you and nice to look at to remember what Atlanta looks like. Mostly, thanks to Michelle for making everybody send them, but also thanks to everyone who took the time to write me a line. It made my stay here nice. I made a little collage of them on my door.

Laundry This Week

I did laundry again this week. It's nice to have clean clothes. This is my last laundry day in Berlin. I'll miss lugging a big duffel bag of clothes up and down four flights of stairs every week. I'll miss the control board at the laundry where you put in the money, and press the buttons that correspond to your washing machine or dryer. I'll miss the bill changer that keeps spitting my bill back to me, and the two hours and 13 Euro that it took each week to do it. Those were good times at the Ecowash Waschsalon. I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said "You never run out of things that can go wrong". I think that is very true, but what does it mean? Maybe it means that you should be careful...or maybe it means that since there is a neverending supply of things that can go wrong, you should just do whatever it is that you want to do...or maybe there was something on the back of the shirt that I didn't see that would wrap the message up nicely, I don't know. What I do know is that this fortune cookie-like message contains a lot of wisdom, for those who can solve its riddle.

Later that night...

...as I was walking to the tram stop, I went over to an Imbiss to get something to eat, and joined a group of about eight or nine spanish-speaking guys in a rousing rendition of Guantanamera. This was the extended version, jam-band length. There was one guy playing the guitar, one guy with a couple pieces of wood that he clacked together, another with little shakers that made a rattling noise, another guy was drumming with his hand and the bottom edge of a coke can, and everybody was smiling and singing. It was really cool, and I just joined in for the song, then went and ordered my food, hung around a little while listening to the next song, and then caught the tram home. It´s neat to stumble onto these little adventures in the city.

8mm

Went to 8mm last night, this dope place in P-Berg, and had a good time. Props to my boy Sean, who told me about the place, and to his buddy Louis, who runs the place. Cool, international, musical crowd there. I met and argued politics and drank and laughed with a Swiss guy and a German guy, and some Irish blokes out on a stag party, and some Americans. Very chill on Sunday, but also kind of lively, if that makes sense. Prior to hitting 8mm, I caught some NFL at the Ceili House, saw a great Cincinnati-Pittsburgh game, and blah, blah, blah. Back at 8mm, my newfound German friend Connor got kicked out for spraying his beer at everyone within an eight-foot radius. That was pretty funny. It´s pretty obvious to people wherever I go that I´m American, by the way that I dress--Angels cap, Babe Ruth T-shirt, etc., which is fine by me, I´m proud to be an American, and I don´t mind that people can recognize that. But I think that some people think that it would be better if I tried to blend in more. To me, though, that is kind of disengenuous. I mean, a lot of Americans stop by the second hand store when they get here and get the olive-drab army fatigue jacket, and a european hat, and it´s almost like a uniform for them. Now, I respect the culture, and I have tried, with admittedly mixed results, to speak the language, but I don´t think that hiding who I am with regard to my fashion sense(or lack thereof) helps anybody. What happens though, sometimes, is that you are pre-judged based on your dress, and you can become a kind of target for anti-American sentiment. In a way, though, I think it is kind of a nice icebreaker, because it allows you to get into socio-political and cultural arguments with others, which is fun, and through that, reach a certain common ground, or just agree to disagree. It´s interesting to talk to people who have a different viewpoint, and the Europeans with whom I´ve spoken have been very open to these kinds of discussions. I think maybe they are used to the Ugly American, or the American Apologist, so it´s probably refreshing for them to get into a debate with an American who is neither of those things, and who doesn´t see Germany or America through rose-colored glasses.

Hello

Went down to the East Side Gallery today, which is a stretch of the Berlin Wall that has art and graffiti on it, I think it may be the longest stretch of the wall remaining in town. That was cool to see. The wall is pretty high, it would've been hard to get over. Behind the wall, there is now a beach bar on the river. It's funny, Berlin has a lot of sand and beach bars all around. I stopped in and had a corona with a lime(a good German beer), sat on a comfortable chair, and listened to the music blaring from the speakers, I think it was counting crows. The weather was perfect. After that, I wandered in to Metro, which is like a big Sam's Club, and this was the grand opening weekend, which was great for me, because they had a bunch of food samples that they were giving away. I got some coke, some curry-flavored potato chips called Riffles, which were like Ruffles in the States, and a bunch of other stuff, so it was a nice score.
In other news, the LA Angels are seven games back with nine to go, so they are really up against it. The good news is that six of those nine games are against the first place Oakland A's. The bad news is that they will probably need to go 9-0 in order to have a chance at the postseason.
After the Metro trip, I met up with Rob and Sara at the Unsicht-Bar in Mitte, which is a blind bar and restaurant, meaning that you eat in complete darkness and the waitstaff is made up of blind people. Really cool idea and a way neat experience. This would be a neat idea for a restaurant in Atlanta. It is a multi-course meal in total darkness--I mean, you can't even see your hand in front of your face. The food was really good, probably the best food I've had here, and our waitress was very good also. I ordered the surprise menu, but I made out pretty well. It's kind of scary walking into a completely dark room, kinda makes you realize how much you depend on sight. I sort of got used to the darkness, but then later, my eyes were a little light-sensitive. But it's kind of cool trying to navigate in the dark, pouring drinks and finding the bread or your fork. Unlike any dining experience I've ever had.

Funny story from Reuters.com

Man bites panda after panda bites manThu Sep 21, 2006 10:22 AM BST

BEIJING (Reuters) - An intoxicated Chinese man who tried to give a panda a hug at Beijing Zoo found himself biting it in self defence after his clumsy attempt at affection was savagely rejected, local media reported on Thursday.
Zhang Xinyan, a building worker on holiday from China's central Henan province, climbed into an enclosure that held Gu Gu, a seven-year-old panda, at Beijing Zoo after the man had drunk four pints of beer during lunch at a nearby restaurant, the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily said.
Zhang, who couldn't remember the incident clearly, had wanted to hug the panda and shake its hand after having watched similar scenes on television.
"When I was in there, the panda was eating bamboo. Then, it seemed some people shouted, which startled the panda. He rushed over to bite my leg," Zhang said.
Zhang, who tried in vain to push the panda away, was bitten twice and forced to the ground, the paper said.
"I took the opportunity to bite the panda's back, but its fur was too thick," Zhang said.
Eventually, a zoo worker sprayed water from a hose to rescue Zhang from the panda's clutches, the paper said.
Both were worse for wear after the tussle. Zhang was rushed to hospital and given tetanus and rabies shots, while Gu Gu lost her appetite, Xinhua news agency reported.
"It was scared by the intruder and refused to eat for one and a half days," a zoo spokeswoman, surnamed Ye, told Xinhua.
But Gu Gu had recovered and was back on display on Thursday.
Zhang, however, faces at least a half-month convalescence, due to the "deep wounds", Xinhua said, citing Zhang's doctor.
His pride had also been injured, after reading stories of his exploits in newspapers.
"I wouldn't have jumped in if I knew what would happen," Zhang said.
The zoo, which plans to install cameras to monitor the enclosure, would not prosecute, Xinhua said.
But Zhang had already been tried and found guilty by Chinese Internet surfers.
"The man should be fined for the trouble he made," an anonymous commentator said in a posting on 163.com.
"He deserved to be bitten."

Interesting

Check out this article.

Live Chat Today at 5p Eastern Time

Hit me up on the google chat, I'm at joemattern@gmail.com, and I'll post the transcript of the chat.

Wolfsburg--VW factory

I went to Wolfsburg today and toured the VW plant. It was neat to see the robots assembling the cars. It is a big facility, and they have museums on the campus also. The campus is about 6.5 square kilometers, so it is really huge. The factory was being used for the war machine until it was bombed, but now they're back to making cars. I'll put a few pics up, and maybe expand a little about the trip in a later post.

Laundry This Week

I did laundry again this week.

With the Dolphins, each week is better than the next

I went back to the Ceili House on Pariser Str. to watch some NFL. Luckily, the first game on was the Dolphins. Unfortunately, they were terrible and got beat by a mediocre Buffalo team. This game made me realize three things: 1) The Dolphins are not a very good team, because 2) Daunte Culpepper is not a very good QB and 3) Nick Saban is not a very good coach. Now, I realize that we are only in week two, but it is already getting ridiculous. The Dolphins were terrible today. I don't know why everyone was picking them to do well this year.

Great Business Idea

Hey, I found this great business idea in Business 2.0 magazine that I think I might do. Let me know if you have any ideas or would like to invest in this (this is a chance to get in on the ground floor).

Jan Delay--Klar

Hey, check out this video. I saw it several times on the TV at my hotel in Poland. Watch it four or five times, and if you're not humming it for the next two weeks, I'll give you double your money back.

Really hard job? Come on.

Check out this article.

Poznan Pics

Three-story arcaded loggia on the huge facade of the town hall...all those arcades and no video games, that is a huge facade.

This is the front of the town hall. Every day when the clock strikes twelve, two doors open to reveal two metal billy goats.

Here is the Town Hall, built in the mid-sixteenth century. It looks brand new, almost fake, but really cool-looking.


Marching band in the square.

This is the Old Marych Monument, a statue by Robert Sobocinski based on the fictitious character by Juliusz Kubel. I didn't see many bikers here, though.

Here's a nice view of Poznan with The Cathedral in the distance. It is a Gothic Basilica built in 968.

Here's an old church in Poznan.

Poland, NFL, and other stuff

Busy weekend. I went to a scenic little town in Poland called Poznan. It has an Old City center with a neat square and a really cool-looking town hall. I´ll try and post some pictures later. Poznan is about two and half to three hours by train from Berlin, and is perfect for a trip of a day or two. I have a crick(sp) in my neck and am getting slightly nauseous from a coworker prattling on and on in a thick British accent...normally I like the British accent, but something about this one is too sugary or something...a similar thing happens with the southern accent--really great up to a point, but when poured on too much, it can grate. But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes, Poland. I rolled into town on Saturday, and had dinner in the Old City square at western steakhouse/disco called Sioux City. The food was ok, steak was tougher than a Waffle House steak though. The disco was packed, as was the entire square. Seemed like a good mix of locals and Polish and German tourists. On the train ride over, I sat next to a couple of Polish doctors who did not like the Polish healthcare system, mainly because it didn´t pay enough. That´s how I feel about the American journalism system. I´m kidding about that. I think most "journalists", even at meager wages, are probably overpaid. It seems like rich people never think they are rich. This is not just an American phenomenon. No matter who you are(Bill Gates notwithstanding), you can always look around and find someone with more than you. Hey, that´s life, brother. Might as well get used to it, and don´t let´s be bitter about it, especially when there are a lot of people with less than you that you could look at in an effort to feel better about your station in life. Anyway, Poland was neat, and on Sunday afternoon in the square there was a marching band, and singers, and handsome cabs lapping the square, and bored teens slowly pedaling bikes pulling plywood billboards for cell phone companies, and old women selling balloons to excited kids, and on Saturday night there were fire twirlers, and groups of teens and couples on dates, and tourists, etc. Very festive atmosphere. I´m reading a James Bond book now, and in Poland, I felt a little like Jason Bourne. It is fun to travel alone to a strange place, but I felt myself at first more on guard than normal. Pretty soon I grew more comfortable, and I was happy that I didn´t have to bring out the nunchuks. Another thing about the train--there´s nothing like the rythm of the rails to soothe and relax, esp. if you´re in a quiet car and the seat next to you and across from you is empty, so you can stretch out. Poland reminds me for some reason of the summer I spent helping my uncle restore an old Tuscan Villa. Which is weird, because Poland and Tuscany are nothing alike. Oh, those were good times. Bella Toscana! Anyway, I got back Sunday afternoon, and then it was time to go to the Ceili House, an Irish/English pub where they show NFL football. This was great because I was really happy to finally see some real football. The place is pretty cool, and they had free wings and ribs and chips, so that was cool. I met up with a couple of Burns peeps, and watched the Falcons beat the Panthers, and the Jaguars beat the Cowboys, and got to see the US Open final to boot, so it was a good time. I met this bloke from England who is a big 49ers fan, so much so that he has the dvd´s of the games sent to him in England. The only thing is I think he thought he knew more about football than I do. Now, that´s just silly. It seemed like he was trying to prove his knowledge by naming players and deconstructing the Cover 3, like he recently read ``Football For Dummies´´ or something. Nice guy, but a little cocky in his knowledge, like if I tried to tell him about English soccer. There were some nice folks there, but it was a little depressing because of some of the expats who have a kind of conceit about living abroad. Berlin is a very cool town, but I think some Americans move here because they can´t hack it in the States. Most of the people there were pretty cool, though. Anyway, the football was great to watch, even though my starting fantasy QB, Trent Green, got drilled and went out of the game. I´m down a point, but I have three players yet to play this week. I feel like I´m leaving out a lot, but I´ve gone on pretty long here and so will wrap it up. I´ll try to get some pics up tonight, and I´ll post again if I think of anything.

IJP Par-Tay

Went to the IJP party at Einstein's Cafe, which sounds like a coffee shop, but is actually a fancy big house that also has a big outdoor area. The place really reminded me of my boyhood home in Mallorca. They put out a pretty nice spread, including some good meatballs that look like little hamburgers. Rob and I switched identities for the party, so that was fun, but mostly I just sat around with the other Burns fellows from this year and they were talking about different things, I wasn't really paying much attention, but the party was very nice, and kind of swank actually. Then later, the group kind of broke up, everyone promising that tomorrow would be the night that we would stay out late and have fun. I've heard that tune before...anyway, a few of us hung around for awhile, then I danced to Ice Ice Baby, and then we went to this place called the Clairechen Ballhaus, which is like a bar/dance place, kind of funky, it was cool, and I danced a little and then they closed and then it was back to the flat. Good times.

Laundry This Week

I did laundry again at the EcoWash Waschsalon. I loaded up the big machine, then I went to the video rental place to return Syriana, which is a good movie, and then I stopped at Burger King on the way back and had the chicken sandwich, which they call the Long Chicken here. Then I went back to the laundromat and put the clothes in the dryer. I finished Freakonomics also, which I recommend. My beautiful and wonderful girlfriend called and that brightened my day a lot. Then after the call I took my clothes out of the dryer and folded them, and went back to the flat. I had to get ready for the IJP partay.

Blah, blah, blah

Went into video store today and saw a Smurfs DVD called Die Schlumpfe, with an umlaut over the u....when you get fries at a fast food place here, they scoop the fries into the fry bag, and then they put a napkin over the top where the fries stick out, I guess so they don't actually touch the fries--that's a nice touch, I think...my fantasy football draft is tonight at 2:30 am local time, I plan on crushing the league this year, although I haven't done much preparation...How about an extra dollar tax on crappy pop music? This way, every time someone goes platinum, that's another million bucks for schools or roads or whatever...the NFL season kicks off tomorrow as the Dolphins begin their quest to become the first Super Bowl team with home-field advantage...my prediction, Dolphins 35- Steelers 7...here's a clip for Raiders fans to get you in the football spirit...

To Fix Social Security

I was eating the Schwarma Plate over at Meyman tonight, and I started scribbling in this little notebook I got at a bookstore in Hackescher Markt, and I got an idea. Not an original idea, exactly, but a good one. Also, I've been reading Freakonomics, which is very good, so that may have influenced my thinking also. This is the gist of the idea: instead of focusing on the old-timers with regard to social security, why not take the long view and focus on youngsters--that is, why not give people the money on the front-end and take advantage of compound interest, instead of forcing elderly people to subsist on a below-poverty-level budget. Here's how I was thinking it would work: the day you're born, $5,000 goes into your retirement fund, and that's it. The five grand goes into a stock index fund, maybe the S & P 500, and just sits there, compounding, until you turn 65. At 9% interest, that $5,000 turns into 1.3 million, which, in 2071 won't be a ton, but it will be better than the alternative. Also, the money you receive at birth could be indexed to inflation, which would increase the numbers. Right now, there are about 80 million people under 20 in the US. So that is about $400,000,000,000. That is about 400 billion dollars, not chump change, but not an unheard of amount of money. I think that's about 4% of GDP, so I think we could find the money. My guess is that Washington is wasting a lot of money now anyway, so I'm sure we could clean up some of the superfluous spending and find some loose change under the couch cushions. Anyway, I don't have all the details worked out yet, but let me know what you think so far, and if you have any ideas to improve on this.

Space Race Update

Europe has made it to the moon.

Poverty. What is it good for?

Here´s an interesting article.

German vs. American Work Ethic

German road crews seem to be a lot like their American counterparts: one guy working, and three guys standing around. The only difference I´ve noticed so far is that in Germany I haven´t seen the guy holding the STOP/SLOW sign. Actually, now that I think about it, the same could be said for German and American newsrooms too.

Starbury

Check out this article from Slate.

Bad To The Bone With A Microphone

I'm not internationally known, but I'm known to rock a microphone. Actually, I think big Flo IS known internationally...this looks like a spot-on rendition of "My Way" by the Chairman Of The Board. This is an interesting photo also, I don't know who took this, but look at the contrast of dark and light. Florian facing the darkness represents a fearless inward look at the darkness of the human soul, while still illuminating the mostly good inner nature of man with the light beaming. The duck standing on one foot in the picture in the background represents the precarious balance of nature and man's place in it. Notice the dark cloud in the painting, and that Florian and the duck are both facing the same direction...This picture within a picture is fascinating, both in the immediate aesthetic, and in the deep religious and moral symbolism. And I'm drunk.
Here's Jessie on the mic. She did an outstanding version of "Bobby McGhee", really channeling Janis...interesting note: this song was written by Kris Kristofferson, who, somewhat less interestingly, was a Rhodes Scholar.

Here I am wrecking "The Devil went down to Georgia", or maybe "Sweet Home Alabama".
Here is Rob and Matt "Pee Papa" Hermann--I think they are doing something from Michael Bolton.

Here is Rob, Steffen, and Brian--not singing.

Here are some cool pics of when we were doing karaoke at Airlie in late July. Jessie Seyfer just posted these to the Burns thing, so I thought I'd steal some of them for the blog. It's weird, these shots were from about a month ago, but it seems like it was a lot longer than that. One day, I'll look back at these pics and think about how much fun I was having back in the day, even though I probably won't have kept in touch with anyone else in the photos. That's no reflection on the others, but more a realistic view of my inability to stay in touch with people with whom I have karaokeed. Anyway, this is only my second karaoke participation, and I think it showed.

I Guess Not

Agassi cries more than Dick Vermeil.


I guess tennis is not fixed since Agassi is out. I stand corrected. By the way, though, why aren't these pain-killing injections like the ones that Agassi got(and the ones that athletes from all sports get) considered performance-enhancing drugs? Without them, they couldn't perform, so clearly they enhance the performance. Seems like kind of a blurry line to me.

Is Tennis Fixed?

We will know soon...I predict another 5-set victory or two for Agassi before he ``wins´´ another US Open. This seems to be scripted perfectly for Agassi to go out on top, and a nice story for the tennis tour, sure to get huge ratings if Agassi reaches the final.