Sensory Overload

Sorry for the missed entry last week everyone - I've received a lot of concerned fan mail here at the office. It's reassuring to hear that many of you are such devoted fans and wanted to get in touch, it's concerning that some of the sillier ones amongst you attempted to letter bomb our headquarters to show your disappointment.

Anyway after being out of town, I thought my return to the capital had to be celebrated by something classically Berlin. So, clearly, it was time to go and see some live screamtech electro from Canada. I headed with my cultural reporter Alicia H. to Crystal Castles at Columbiahalle on Monday night. The gig was a beauty. The soundsystem there really does do the job - I still am struggling to hear my colleagues at work - and the band's lead singer Alice Glass also makes a conscious effort to destroy ear drums.

I walked out of there pretty disorientated to be honest. On the way home we stumbled across this bit of modern art, Kreuzberg-style. It is a tree-stump (still fresh) with a rock on it named "Pherus". Perhaps the little fella was part of the old Berlin Wall? Perhaps he was a pet rock who had escaped his owner, looking for a better life? We will just simply never know.

Berlin Music Week

So Berlin Music Week has been and gone. The city's biggest celebration of modern music of the year... and I attended none of it. Not even with one of my favourite bands playing, Hot Chip. Now that takes some doing. Working on Friday and Saturday, I then also missed the final day on Sunday due to "the most important cricket game of my life" - the German national club final.

For the past few weeks, the Berlin radio stations were pushing this city-based music festival until we couldn't really take it anymore. On Saturday night they then had to close Tempelhof Airport - the main location of the event - due to overcrowding. Ironic really, considering it was once one of the largest buildings in the world.

The new event is a winner for the city's coffers though. The council has already said it's going to happen again next year. Nothing like a bit of tourist dollar!

what's that sound?

I've talked about it before. It's tricky to know what to do on Sundays in Germany. Things are always shut, and the weather generally isn't very good. In Berlin though, thankfully, there's always SOMETHING going on. Today for instance I was just moseying around my local area when I stumbled across a cheeky sound installation in an ex water reservoir ....as you do!

The project inside, from Belgian artist Pierre Berthet, was called "extended drops". Set up around the inner walls of a barely-lit, labyrinth-like water reservoir, the first thing I realised was: this was going to be spooky. In the end, after being bombarded with low rumbles and high-pitched twangs for 20 minutes, I was confused as to how the sounds were even being made. This is what the flyer said:"...steel wires cross the room and are attached to membranes on loudspeakers and special resonators on the reservoir walls. The anologue drops and the resulting electronic pulses create a wide rhythmic and sound spectrum - a seemingly timeless, atmospherically-rich combination of tones in space."

Yes, well... There was only one thing to do after all that ofcourse. Head outside into the sunshine for an ice cream.

Mauerpark Karaoke

It's Sunday in Germany, which means it's time to head out with the family and go for long aimless walks and eat ice cream. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But, here in Berlin, people aren't interested in that sort of good, clean fun. Instead, they grab a couple of Sternburg Export beers, head to Mauerpark and go shopping for old World War Two gas masks.

We've talked about Mauerpark before here at Euroblog - but that was in winter. In high summer is when it really shows its true colours. The place becomes a magnet for every coolio north of Alexanderplatz (the people in Kreuzberg have their own flea markets thank you very much). But can Kreuzberg offer this sort of pulling power???

You see, Mauerpark has now added an extra string to its bow - it's called Bearpit Karaoke. Run by Joe Hatchiban, a bike courier from Dublin who now lives in Berlin, this local cult event started on a Sunday way back in February 2009. The idea is simple: if you provide a laptop full of karaoke songs, two speakers and a very odd eastern-bloc amphitheater, the people will come. And it's going from strength to strength, crowds of 1500 to 2000 people are now regularly on hand to watch their neighbours embarrass themselves with a version of their favourite song. Only in Berlin.

Berghain Eisbein

After five years of putting it off, I finally managed to get in the door of Berghain this weekend.

For those that don't know... this is apparently the world's number one club. It's the sort of place where hysteric guests scream when they've been let in by the bouncers. Anyway, after a build-up of half a decade it was never going to quite meet expectations - but it didn't do a bad job.

After waiting the best part of an hour in the queue and seeing my body temperature drop to 10 degrees Celsius, my friends and I just managed to look disinterested enough at the front door to get in. The group of Australians behind us were turned away - tourists aren't welcome. Inside we were greeted by more security controls (no-one checking boarding cards though) and a demand for 12 Euros. I would have paid that money just for the interior architecture alone.

I mean, what a set-up! What looks like a rotting, disused power station from the outside, is actually an engineering masterpiece. It's got an elevated dancefloor, HUGE speakers hanging from the roof, motorised blinds that go up and down at sunrise and more dark rooms and chill out nooks than you could poke a stick at.

Oh, and the music wasn't bad either.