This past weekend was a long holiday weekend. Pfingsten they call it in German and it qualifies for a day off. Why? I don’t know but I’m not complaining. The weather wasn’t great but those are the breaks. I would have like to go out and take some pictures of the Rapsfelder. They are so blazingly yellow, it’s almost supernatural.
On Friday evening I worked for a few hours before going to Jekyl and Hyde’s with Detlef.
On Saturday I worked for about 4 hours. In the evening I went to see Masha Qrella in the very small but very gemütlich Asta Wohnzimmer. It was a great show. I had never heard of her before the show but it was recommended to me by a friend. It was only during the encore that I recognized a song that I had heard a few times on the radio. Every time I heard it I was disappointed that the DJ never announced who it was. Now I know.
On Sunday Detlef had an Einweihungsparty. It was mainly a get together of people I studied with earlier at the Fachhochschule. We all caught up on what the others were up to lately. I told my joke in German and they thought the idea that Jesus would make a Frenchman a good football player was funnier than the punchline.
At around 1 in the morning I was swerving my way home along Am Sande and saw a group of 4 or 5 young guys walking the other way down the opposite side of the street. One of them was carrying a radio that was blaring some crazy beats with super sick distorted droning bass lines. It sounded really cool. I was grooving on it for a moment before they suddenly began to rap and sing. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. Some of them sang Maqam-like drones to accompany those from the radio while the others rapped over it in harmony. I don’t know what language it was but it wasn’t German, English, or French. Turkish? Arabic, perhaps? Whatever it was, it sounded amazing. It was like a Muslim call to prayer featuring My Bloody Valentine and DJ Premier.
The city was otherwise quite and still and the sounds were reflecting off the walls of the surrounding buildings creating a huge reverb sound. I watched for few minutes before they walked to the end of the street, turned the corner, and faded out.