Ich habe keinen Bock

Last night Germany played Turkey in the semifinal game for the Euro 2008 football/soccer tournament (think World Cup but just for Europe). This game was important for Berlin because lots of Turkish people live here, especially in our part of town and neighboring districts. All week people have been waving flags out their windows, balconies, cars, storefronts, etc. The respective displays of patriotism have been pretty well represented on both sides, and I even saw a flag that was Germany on one side and Turkey on the other - very multikulti but confusing when the sun is shining from behind.





Of course I don't really care who wins the Euro 2008 European Cup (the US once again did not make it in) but it's fun to pretend to watch, and at least drink a beer in the warm evenings with everyone else. We watched this game at a very crowded beer-garden style bar in Kreuzberg by the Spree. The crowd turned out to be mostly pro-Germany and I guess I was kind of hoping for a Turkey upset.

Turkey scored first in something like the 20th minute and Germany soon evened things at 1-1 with a goal from the dyed-blonde Schweinsteiger (which I'm pretty sure means 'pig rider' although it doesn't seem to phase anyone here). Then in the second half each team scored another goal on what seemed to be mistakes by the goalkeepers. It looked like the game was heading to overtime (I went to buy another drink) but in the last minute of regular time the guy from the advertisements in the U-bahn scored a goal and won the game. It was all very exciting.



Actually one of the best parts of the game for me was when the TV signal cut out and sent the whole crowd into an uproar. I guess the folks in Austria (where the game was being played) lost power and blamed it on the weather. It was hard to get too excited when the goals were scored but it was easy to see why that was amusing.

Another good thing about watching German soccer is that the coach is kind of a hipster.

So anyway, Germany is in the finals and they place Russia/Spain (decided in a couple hours) on Sunday in the EURO 2008 championship match. I can't wait!

Re the title of this entry: I'm told it's funny if you speak German and Turkish.

words of wisdom

I just got back to Berlin after a couple weeks in Paris and then Stockholm. It was mostly work-related conference travel, but I did get to explore the cities a bit. I'll try to write something interesting and maybe put up some pictures at some point (at least from Paris, the camera broke before I got to Stockholm), but for now I will just say that I heard this song in a Stockholm bar/club.



I've been humming it to myself ever since.

bad news, Heidi

There's a McDonald's at Hermannplatz, a couple blocks from where we live (I've only been there once, and just for the fries). This morning I noticed that the windows are all taped up and seems like it's being closed down - is that possible?

catchy spam

Today I checked my old email account from the UW math department (seems to still be active). Everything gets forwarded to my gmail but occasionally I need to log in and delete all the old messages to free up some space. It's also fun to see the emails that slip through those sophisticated spam filters that the department has set up. Here are some of my favorite subject lines from surviving messages:

linguistic deficit
most difficult toothache
strawberry blonde grain of sand
overpriced submarine
sprightly bartender
so-called food stamp
self-actualized scooby snack
greasy football team
placid pine cone
cosmopolitan customer
like others, allows
we need one idea
he studies history.
kids win money
russian sex roulette
self-loathing blithe spirit
Barack Obama is saying about his transsexual affairs videofile!!!

rockin'

There's an article about our part of town in this week's zitty. It's in German but you can get the gist from the cover page (see below). And no, I've never seen her around the neighborhood.

Fahrt like the wind

The U-bahn has been on strike for over a week now. Since this is the line I usually take to work, for the past few days I've been biking to the nearest S-bahn station and taking that train to work (S-bahn = schnell bahn = 'fast train'). This isn't so bad (I've been told some folks bike to work regardless of train strikes) but lately it's been pretty rainy and especially windy in Berlin.

My journey to the S-bahn station (Warshauer Strasse) takes me over the Oberbaumbrücke, one of the more famous bridges in Berlin.


It's a fun bridge to cross, always busy and especially full of tourists making the journey from East to/from West Berlin. This morning was particularly gusty, and as the wind blows east across the Spree I was more or less coasting across the bridge - even the uphill parts.

hip shots

Last weekend it was sunny in berlin and so we walked around the neighborhood - mostly south this time along Sonnenallee into Neukölln. I took some pictures and the best ones were crooked and blurry.







It got darker as it got later (this was expected) and the photos got blurrier.

best music of '07

So as many of you know one of my favorite ways to waste time is by trying to keep up with the intricacies of the contemporary music scene. This mostly involves reading online publications and other blogs, but also sometimes actually listening to the radio and occasionally checking out a show. At the end of the year I have a bunch of albums and songs on my laptop and some I like to single out as the best efforts of the year.

I suppose the list this year looks pretty similar to e.g. the pitchfork best of list, and (despite my age) it's mostly indie rock of some sort or another, but in any case, here they are: the top forty something songs of 2007. in no particular order (aside from alphabetical by band name).

Beach Party - Air France
Keep the Car Running - Arcade Fire
(This Is for The) Better Days - A Band of Bees
Atlas - Battle
Elephant Gun - Beirut
Katrina - Black Lips
Sun Lips - Black Moth Super Rainbow
23 - Blonde Redhead
In Our Talons - The Bowerbirds
Truth Is - Brother Ali
Archangel - Burial
Gutterfly - Camp Lo/Lifesavas
Melody Day - Caribou
Believe E.S.P. - Deerhoof
Heatherwood - Deerhunter
Radio Ballet - Eluvium
My Moon My Man - Feist
A Paw In My Face - The Field
Your Rocky Spine - Great Lake Swimmers
(I Don't Need You To) Set Me Free - Grinderman
Colleen - The Heavy
House by the Sea - Iron & Wine
A Postcard To Nina - Jens Lekman
Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem
The Demise of Madame Butterfly - Madeline
Deserter - Matthew Dear
Paper Planes - M.I.A.
Dying Breed - Marissa Nadler
Wet & Rusty - Menomena
Summersend - Misha
Grolandic Edit - Of Montreal
Fake Empire - The National
Comfy in Nautica - Panda Bear
Dear Employee - Papercuts
Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead
Umbrella - Rihanna
I Sing I Swim - Seabear
100 Days - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Australia - The Shins
Animal House - Simian Mobile Disco
Jade Like Wine - Six Organs of Admittance
Winged-Wicked Things - Sunset Rubdown
Lost and Found - Taken by Trees
Lolita - Throw Me a Statue
Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
2080 - Yeasayer

P.S. I might add more to this list in case i realize i forgot something - any suggestions?

current resolution

Happy 2008 everyone! (anyone?)
It's been a while since the last post and that's partly due to the computer problems I experienced over the holidays. We spent xmas in England and while I was over there the charger for my computer stopped delivering voltage from the wall into my laptop (its primary function). I figured it had something to do with the high voltages streaming from the outlets but according to the numbers on the back of the charger it should have been able to handle it. So anyway, I had to wait until we got back to Berlin to order one through german ebay. It arrived in the mail the other day and now I'm back on the laptop.

In related news, one of the keys on my casiotone broke in our initial move to berlin and I've been waiting for months to find a philip's head screwdriver small enough to reach the dozens of screws in the back. Part of the traditional English Christmas dinner (apparently) involves everyone shooting off explosive poppers with small prizes inside - coincidentally my prize was a pack of mini screwdrivers (with a carrying case)! As soon as we got back to Berlin (and after placing the ebay order) I went to work on the casiotone. After an hour of carpal-tunnel-defying effort I managed to get the thing open. I was able to access the broken/stuck key and after moving some things around I put it all back together again (minus one or two screws). Needless to say I had limited expectations of the results, but I plugged it in and it was working, good as new (but you know still in a vintage way). Working for a while, that is - after a few rounds of pre-programmed beat assisted chord progressions, there was a spark and the thing went dead. But this time it was surely the power adapter, I could tell by the smell.



Casualties