das Lustspiel

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"The most significant thing of all is inspiration. Without it, we would be like dull and grey creatures, walking around on earth greeting no one. We would exist, without really living. What you are about to see is what happens to the individual when he eventually looses it. In a last desperate act, he attempts to force his inspiration to come forward and once again fill his life with a purpose. What you are about to see is neither a fiction, nor a cute story, it is simply reality in its most crucial form."

GRANDI ARTE will be screened on Wednesday 11th of February. Be there at 6pm if you want to see the project with your own very eyes. Loophole, Rathaus Neukölln/Boddinstraße is the place to be.

Viva la Boddinale

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The Boddinale

I just arrived home from the movie festival in Neukölln. No not "The" movie festival, cause this was the more unknown and unsponsored one, (unknown + unsponsored = automatically cooler?) the "Boddinale". Now I have a lot of new inspiration and I felt like I had to write about it since it was such a lifting event.

Written: 17 Feb, 2014

  That was basically it. Since I got home too late and a bit too blue[1] that night I couldn’t comprehend doing any further. But now I managed to get myself together to finish the subject since I thought the festival deserved more from me.

The "Boddinale" is held at Loophole, Neukölln, and was initiated last year by the local staff led by Gianluca who's running the show.

More about the location: LoopHole doesn’t look like that much from the outside, it just looks like a barricaded closed bar. But when you enter, you directly notice that the place got its own personal feeling and that it’s been touched in a tender way by the people running it. For instance they built their own room with sound isolation which comes in handy, since the parties tend to get out of hand. But I assume it doesn’t block it out completely since I can’t recall a single time that I’ve been there before and der Polizei hasn’t abrupted the party. The reason for this is apparently that they’re just registered as a regular bar, and the people living in the same building don’t share the same passion for loud music every night around 3-4 a.m.

So back to the festival again:

Basically it’s for everyone who’s interested in movies and in the creation of them. To take part of it is neither hard nor expensive, the only criteria is that you have to live in Berlin when you do your work and you also have to be present during the actual festival since that’s one of the headstones of this whole event – to get movie lovers and producers to interact with each other.

What I also loved about the Boddinale was the mixture of material which they screened before our eyes. Some movies were only 30 seconds long (one lasted for only 10 seconds apparently and I missed it when I was searching for a cookie in my own pocket) and some other works could be around 40 minutes, made by movie academies during their semester breaks. The competitive side isn't in focus for this festival though, the golden word is again “Interaction”.

http://www.lenkaritschny.de/work/film/hinterm-ostbahnhof/

http://www.tgifdoc.com/

  If you’re thinking about setting up a movie, social experiment or just a sex tape, don’t hesitate to send it in to these guys then, http://www.boddinale.com/ they might find it interesting enough, just don’t forget about the criteria. On the homepage you also find more info about the festival, did I mention it’s free entry!? Thanks for this year and I’ll definitely come back next year with my own contribution.

(At the moment of writing LoopHole is dealing with der Polizei again regarding their existence since there was a complain from yet another neighbour... I sincerely hope that you will solve this again and keep the creativity floating)

[1] German slang for being proper drunk

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Visit to the poo.. ice factory

Now I've been checking out the old abandoned ice factory in central Berlin. To be honest, the excitement level wasn't that high from begining, since it's pretty easy to get in if you just know where to (if you come from ostbahnhof just climb in near the Spree where the fence is open to avoid the barbed wire).

But the thing is that this building seems to been taken over by homeless people, who built a camp with tipi tents on the area. We also found out that some of the rooms in the old ice factory were actually decorated, furnished and smelled rather good, whilst some just smelled like you could imagine them to and the only furnitures inside were madrasses with suspicious spots on them. So even in this building, there was some kind of depiction of a class society. 

But if you choose to go down to the basement first, (you find the hole which you can climb down through in the wall next to the big entrance facing the water), be aware that you don't have your swagger shoes on or your high-hat attitude, since you're seriously climbing down into a human toilet. You don't notice the smell at first, but while you stand there on the ground it hits you like a ballsack in the face. The place is overfull by rubbish, rats and of course, feces. So be aware where you place your feet, an advise coming from someone who wasn't that aware at first, but surely was after. 

Just remember, if you choose to visit this place or something similar, to have respect for those who actually live there, it may be exiting for you walking into a human toilet but for them it maybe isn't that fun. So be respectful when you take photos and so and greet them kindly. 

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My Meeting With Korni

His intensity began to increase, and I could feel that we were about to be kicked out, which we eventually were after receiving complains from the other waiting patients in the room. So Korni and I were referred into a separate patient room since our level of loudness had reached the maximum level and was disturbing the other nervous patients inside the heart praxis waiting room.

The reason why I met this interesting character for an interview was that earlier, working night shift in a hostel, he came in asking to use the toilet and a free coffee, and since I’m such a nice and unprofessional guy I let him, and after a while we realized that we were both able to handle a Swedish conversation, which I thought was impressive since he was originally from Germany. I then found out that he’d spent three years in Sweden, two of them in the hands of the school belonging to the Free Church organisation, Livets Ord – The word of life. Before that he spent one whole year in the Swedish Christian organisation, KCS, who also owns and runs a famous Lone Star farm, a cowboy idyllic land, in Skåne,Sweden. When I did my research on this, I found out that there have been a lot of debates about this organisation, which has been compared to a sect. The members within this sect were too afraid to leave the community because of the fear of being totally frozen out and abandoned by a dictating pastor who claims that he has the powers of denying the devils the access to the group members body and minds. Together with the farm the KCS sect also had a schooling with combined regular schooling and their christian beliefs. But that school had to shut down in the begining of 2000, but the farm whitch the sect runs is still in action.

Korni has had a lot of trouble with his parents through his whole childhood and still have, now 27 years old. There were things that he will surely not put his future kids out through, but he also has some things that he’s really grateful for, cause his hypothesis is that if he wouldn’t have been forced into his Christianity beliefs and being sent to Sweden, he probably would been doing criminal labour right now in form of drug dealing. He told me that the likelihood of that statement was 95 %.

The two years in the tutoring of The word of life school has made a good impact on him, and he is really grateful for those years, mostly because he felt that they weren’t that pushy with their religious beliefs. But the first year he spent in Sweden, in the hands of the religious cowboys which his parents had sent him to – no good impact what so ever. But he had an old girlfriend, who helped him learning the language at first, and he still has some contact with her, but it’s not that much since she’s still within the sect. Her mother is also the only one in their family to have dropped out of the community, and now she’s written a book about the psychological abuse that she has been suffering during the time in the sect, involving several suicide commissions.

Even though he said that the years in Sweden saved him and changes his view on humanity he still attracted problems directly when he returned after three years to live with his parents, who by then had moved into “Jesus house”. There he spent one year instead of doing the military duty. He couldn’t live in the same room as them, so he got his own on the camp, and it was also here, at the Jesus House, he started dealing drugs to visiting people in the small village. At the same time he was also doing graffiti, and since the village where Jesus House was located was in the size that it was, people could easily recognize him after a short while.

It wasn't until he realised that the money, which he still cashed in from his parents, made him dependent of them. So he moved out, and actually were homeless for almost three weeks. But he got himself together cause he realised that this “gangster” life wasn't for him, he had other appreciations. Now he loves to work around with what he calls: “real people” and speak with all the people he meets, and remembers that it isn't how often you pray to God which depends if your going to heaven or not, it’s what you do in life, and that your always available for an other chance in life.

He also had time to give me some sexual tips: If you focusing on the woman (your partner) in first hand, waiting for her to get her orgasm first, your definitely home and she would do anything for you after while. He also gave me a mix-tape of recorded music from an event by The word of life, which I found inspiring and funny enough to listen through the whole playlist.

If you have any further questions you can ask Korni Riegel himself by Facebook.

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Happy Easter

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You do what the Internet Doc. tells you to

Since I've been sick the last couple of days I felt like trying some new methods to get rid of it, methods I found all over the crazy Internet. These are all pretty weird and interesting old household remedys from their countries of origin. The result will I get tomorrow, but please dont be afraid to try them..or be.

For assistance I had injected my roomate with the same virus so that he also could stay at home and help me out, starting by cooking up some freaky swedish replacement for nasal spray - basically it was cooked water with salt. This didn't really work since it was really hard to get it up your nose without anything else except for the cooking pan. Most of it ended up in our mouth and eyes and because of the salt it stung pretty bad and tears poured out...fiasco

"The Uzbekistani Wrestler".

The time of this process is mostly spent in the kitchen, where you cook milk, butter and lots of honey together. Then just drink half of it, which in the begining isn't that bad but then quite soon you'll get sick of it. So then you take the other half and smear it out over your chest, which sure sounds a bit sexy but when your sick, and the purpose is to get well from it, I can assure you isn't. I will not prevent you from doing it, just saying not to have too high expectations.

"The Russian Tsar-dad"

This is the one I was least looking forward to since basically you should only drink vodka and smell an onion afterwhile. Since we didn´t have any vodka, whiskey becamed our substitut. You take a shoot(?) of it, then put your face down in a prepared papperbag with lots of cut onions in. There you shall also remain for at least 45 sec. and just breeeeathe. Ones again something was pouring from my eyes, and I'm not sure if it was because of all the cut onions or the strong beverage that just been passing through my throat and now started to make troubling plans.

"The Romanian Sauna"

The romanian sauna is really about self discipline. Cause when your crawling down into your bed with all cloths and quilts you can manage to collect it first seems kinda nice and cozy. But then after 30 min. you start losing it, especially if you earlier forgot to clean away the milk from your cheest after perfoming an "Uzbekistani Wrestler". But then after at least 45 min. you've really deserved your shower. Oh I almost forgot, you have to eat hot soup at the same time.

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The man who plays with monkeys

Today I had the honor to meet and chat with Horst - the man who plays with monkeys. My spontanious thought of this guy was: "Wow, this fella seems really charming". He just stod there with his collections of monkeys, playing his instrument and entertaining passers while it was snowing. His instrument looks like a box with a steering wheel on the back, and when you start spinning it, magical sounds come out which gaved me a nostalgic feeling from when I was a little blighter running around at some carneval.

I was currious about the reason for the attending monkeys, but didn't want come out too direct about it, so I asked how come an old gentleman like him (he's in the age of 70) stands outside in the cold for six hours, four days a week since nine years back. The reply was short but all-saying: Weil ich liebe dieser - Because I love it. 

The thing with the monkey collection was that one time when he was playing, somebody through a monkey at him out the window from an upstair apartment but missed. Kindhearted as he were, he addopted the homeless monkey and he's been running with the circus ever since. The monkey which name is "Monkey" and actually speak, but suspiciously with a similar voice as his owner. This is totally a child-magnet but I think there is also a tactical move from Horst to stand out a bit from the other "Leierkastenmänner". 

But apperently there isn't a bloody war going on between the different "Leierkastenmänner" - "organ grinders" (google translate) like there is between the veietnamese cigarett smuggling firms in Berlin.

I asked if he was interesting in grabbing a beer, getting to know eachother on a more personal level, and if he was also interested in coming to Sweden and play. His answer was no on both questions, cause he's trying to cut down on the drinking during weekdays and he was more interested in coming to Finland - the scene for this music is bigger there apparently. 

I thanked him for his time and also asked if I could try the instrument, which I could, an answer which pleased me a lot. 

You can book Horst for weddings, birthdays and so on:

www.altberliner-leierkastenmann.de

His weekly schedule in Berlin: 

Tuesday - Somewhere in Steglitz

Wednesday - Somewhere in Spandau

Thursday - Outside the Arcaden at Schönhauser Allé

Friday - Somewhere in Köpenick

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I recently saw the grand final from The Championships of "Connect Four" or "For in a Row" as people nowadays are calling it. First I thought it could be interesting watching this game cause I didn't know so much about the history of it and I was also interested in seeing which guys that acutally puts down time on playing it. BUT I was about to be surprised..The game really has it all! It has excitment, beer, fruitsallads, sexy assistants, extraordinary characters, and on top of it all: a historic classic war between the germans and the russians, the only question is who would finally conquer and put an end to the encounter??

The game was broadcasted on the Internet, above you can see the Highlights from the game. Really worth putting down 4 minutes to watch it, I GUARANTEE that you also will have the cravings for playing it after while! If you want to read any futher on the subject "Connect Four", go into this reliable link from Wiki, there you can also read about the final which took place last week, go down to "World Championship" : 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect_four

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyra_i_rad

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Face to Face with criminality

For being the capital city of Germany, Berlin hasn't that high rate of crime as you could imagine a capital to have. During the DDR the crime rates in east Berlin was really low, mostly because of their informing/snitching and supervisory system - and that they probably lied a little bit about the stats as well. Now after the association there is some dissatisfaction from the east sides point of view meaning that they are supporterted with too less funds comparing to the west. It also seems to be a bloody cigarette war between Vietnamese smuggling firms going on in the east Berlin. But more info about all that will hopefully come later.

Cause this isn't about my meeting with the Vietnamese smuggling firm, this is about a robbery. All this went down during this previous weekend in east Berlin, close to the area Warschauer Straße. I was out with some friends on a pretty crowded bar street called Simon Dach Straße, when I was planing to aim for another place more intense. So me and my friend went sepperate ways and I thought it was cool to take a shortcut through an empty side street. Thing is, it wasn´t that empty. When I´d come half way and could see the people on the other side real clearly, two guys just suddenly came out. They both wore hoodys and walked really "cool", suddenly when we were three meters away from eachother one of them took up something out of his jacketpocket and started aiming at me in the same height as his head and he hold it a little bit slantways (like they do in the movies). Then it all went pretty fast, and suddenly I was inside the club and had some issues really understanding what just happened. The only proof I had was an empty wallet and some shit in my pants. 

Those robbers, which were in my age, had at least the decency to name my mobile phone "crap" and give it back to me before they disappeared

If you robbers read this I hope you had alot of fun for the total amount of 10 € from my wallet you lucky basterds , and if you want the same amount again I would be glad to hand it to you in exchange for an interview. 

I'm back again the day after to the scene of crime, its blurry cause I got tears in my eyes. 

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das Lustspiel presents itself

Here's some cool facts about the mysterious Spreepark Berlin: 

Kulturpark Plänterwald first opened in 1969 next to the Spree river in Berlin, and the people in former DDR (Deutsche Demokratike Republik) had never seen anything like it before. Then in 1991 a gentleman named Norbert Witte took over the ownership of what was now called Spreepark Berlin. BUT Mr. Witte wasn't so good with his numbers and the park became encumbered with huge debts. So he and his family moved to Peru and made a deal with the authorities that he would move some of the main attractions from Spreepark to Peru for repairing them and then initializing a new amusement park in Peru. What he didn't mention was the he planned to smuggle a huge amount of drugs inside those attractions also. Clever guy got caught and ever since that day no one wanted to take owenership of the park. So it was abandoned, but the legend says that one of old Witte's relatives still lives on the property in a trailer. 

Since 2011 have guided tours in the Spreepark area been available -an option for visiting tourists. If you're not interested in paying you can always sneak in there by night time, when it's not that crowded and the amount of security isn't that high. Then you will definitely have some memorable moments when you crouch under bushes and crawl inside of old rollercoaster tunnels as quiet as you can so that the guards with the bloody dogs won't catch you so that they could either give you a fine or just direct you out of the park. We spended two hours inside the park without getting caught or meeting with some old crazy lady inside of a trailer. 

But we did actually see the trailer and after a short visit inside the big circus tent we were chased off by the guarding dogs. But we survived and that's why I can share this experience with you. When you are walking/sneaking around the park you see alot of traces from other park-immigrants but also guards with dogs and cars - so be aware. 

The main attraction  - The Ferris wheel