All posts by Chillmost

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When I used to live in Chicago I was doing some crazy shit. I lived in the upper level of an old abandoned movie theater that had been converted into apartments for some Polish aristocrat in the 60s. The kitchen used to be the old projection booth, so when you stood at the sink you would look down into the theater. Our land(slum)lord was a car nut and kept about 10 old delapidated antique cars down there which could be seen out of kitchen/projector window.

Next door to us lived this wild-eyed beautiful tattooed girl named Amy. She was always helping me out when I was losing my shit and she is still a really good friend even though I haven’t seen her in years. She has now relocated to San Fransisco after some nomading around the west coast. She is working out there as a tattoo artist. If I ever get a tattoo, she will be doing it. She just sent me a link to her online portfolio at the Sacred Rose. So if your in the Bay area and looking to get some ink done, stop by the Sacred Rose and ask for Amy. Be sure to tell her Nate sent ya.

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I was driving back from the studio the other night and I totally got lost on the Autobahn. I was almost halfway to Hannover. I pulled in to a gas station at a reststop to ask the way and I said, “Ich bin falsch abgebiegen.” The guy said with an annoyed look, “Nein sind Sie nicht. Sie sind falsch abgebogen.”

Gee. Thanks Grammar Guy! Seriously, I’ve been saying that for at least a year and nobody has corrected me. I also just found out that Geschmack is der Geschmack and not das Geschmack. I’ve been saying that for at least 2 years until I heard Florian say “Du hast ja guten Geschmack”. Well there you go. Akkusativ, und männlich. This is just an observation. I can’t explain that stuff.

Somebody I work with said that over half of all tax laws in the world are German and apply to those paying taxes to Germany. I don’t know if it is true, but I could believe it.

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Two things:

Went into the studio to day to record and we laid down the basic tracks for 5 songs. 3 of them I really like and I think they will turn out well. The other two I’m not so sure about. Its going to need some overdubs and creative mixing. The drums and bass are really good and tight so the overdubs should be easy. It’s interesting how when we are in the rehearsal space and on stage the songs sound totally different than when they come out of two speakers.

When I left my apartment to day I opened up the door and stepped out onto my stoop. I looked up accross the street and saw 5 or 6 neo-nazis standing there in all their glatzköpfige glory with their black bomber jackets, jack boots, flags and banners. Now keep in mind, I don’t live in Illinois. These were the German kind. Me being a foreigner, my first thought was “oh shit, did they find my blog?” but then I remembered that today in Lüneburg, the Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD – super rightwing party in Germany, kinda like Republicans without a sense of humor. Oh, wait…:) was having a march for some bullshit about foreigners, education and jobs only for Germans blah, blah, blah. I gave em an evil stare and walked to my car and left. On the way out of town I noticed there were cops all over the place not unlike two weeks ago when the Castor rolled through Lüneburg. In the last couple of weeks there was all kinds of publicity about the NPD march and an anti-NPD march was organized to take place on the same day, today. M. said there were helicopters and polizei all over town on every street and corner keepin the peace. The city council tried to forbid the march but because the party itself is not verboten, they couldn’t deny them the right to assembly and protest. All they, the NPD, had to do was get a permit for their demonstration. The march started in a part of town called Kaltenmoor. I guess you could call it the bad part of town because it is on the wrong side of the tracks and the people that live there are mostly foreigners from Eastern Europe and Turkey. So if they wanted to provoke people and cause trouble they couldn’t have picked a better place to do it. Because of the history here a lot of Germans are flabbergasted that the NPD should be allowed to march and believe they should be forbidden. As an American I see it a little differently. I was brought up with the concept of free speech. They can march up and down the street carrying signs and yelling rascist garbage until they are blue in the face. I don’t care. To me it is like putting idiots on display as an example of how not to be. If enough people confront them and shout them down then they will see that hardly anybody agrees with them and their political views. And that is exactly what happened. The total number of NPD supporters was about 150. The number of people demonstrating against the NPD was about 1500. Click here for a report from the Lüneburg website. In German but with lots of pictures.

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The Ultimate Lineup

I play in a band and this weekend we are going into the studio to record at least 2 maybe 3 or 4 songs. I enjoy playing the kind of music we make but I also want to do something different. I need to rock more in the Sonic Youth, Swervedriver, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, John Coltrane, freaking out direction. I’ll try to get something together in the new year. If I could get a band together I would play guitar, maybe sing. There is this girl in Lüneburg, whose name escapes me, that sings for a band called For Hire. I’d have her sing and an former coworker on keys. Our new bassist Katja would also have to be in it cuz she rawks. The best drummer I ever played with is John Gerdes. He will just have to drop everything and move to Germany for the sole purpose of being in a band with me. You gotta give it all for the Rock and Roll. *sigh*