Notes from Germany

I am an American expat living in Germany. It's a far away land on the other side of the ocean. It's interesting and often weird here. If you read this and want to comment then email me at blog(the at symbol)chillmost.com. If you find any spelling or grammar mistakes, you can keep them.

Monday, August 30, 2004

Spent a very interesting day with M's parents. Went to the Karl May Spiele (info here here and here) in Bad Segeberg and saw a theatrical interpretation of May's "Unter Geiern". After that we went into some caves and saw lots of bats. For dinner went to a "typical American" restaurant where I had the Texas BBQ Style Burger. It was a good burger, but it was not a real Texan Hamburger.

I'm up so late because yesterday we won an eBay auction but the seller had a shill bidder on the auction. I spent the last few hours researching and writing emails to him and eBay with twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence.

He might keep it real, but I keeps it realer.

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Thursday, August 26, 2004

Last weekend I went camping with Detlef at his camping place. The weather was not that great but it didn't matter because there was plenty of beer and BBQ. See for yourself....

I know it doesn't really look like we were roughing it but that's how they do it here. I don't mind though.
The wasps were really aggressive. At one point I watched Detlef fleeing down the beach with about 20 wasps behind him. Because I'm such a good friend, I laughed my ass off at his own misfortune. Thankfully neither of us were stung. When it rained we watched some olympics and played lots of rummikub.

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Wednesday, August 25, 2004

It's only Rock and Roll Part II

Sequel to this post.
Okay. The story was first relayed to me as such: Gig was booked for Saturday and up until the friday before we thought we were good to go. On Friday promoter calls and says said gig is cancelled because a sound system was not properly booked in time.

But what really happened is as follows: In the week after the show I was asked by a friend why we didn't play. After further discussion I discover that the show did in fact happen but it said in the paper that we cancelled do to "technical problems". After a few calls I discover that the promoter did in fact call on Friday before the show and only then informed Marko that either every band brings their own sound system, sets it up, plays for a half hour, and then packs their system back up... or they pay 600? (as of this post about $725) and they get to use the sound system that is already set up and waiting for the main act, Torfrock. Needless to say somebody on our end told the promoter to go fuck himself. I'll be damned to pay that much to play with some washed-up one hit wonder. To put it in terms Americans can understand, I would rather pay to open up for Black Oak Arkansas at a 4-H county fair. Jim Dandy to the Rescue indeed!

Remember the Kirchweih I wanted to go to on that fateful weekend but had to cancel due to the planned concert? I'm even more pissed about it now. I will give details about the Kirchweih that were relayed to me by Jens. But you will have to wait for that. All I will say now is that Eine Schande wurde über das Dorf gebracht!!

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Sunday, August 15, 2004

Sunday

Not much new. I was a pretty active sporty guy this weekend. Yesterday weights and today roller-blading. I have a post to write about the concert that was supposedly canceled last weekend. And news regarding the tree at last weekends Kirchweih. It gets exciting but I don't feel like writing about it now.

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Monday, August 09, 2004

Two interesting articles for you:

Attack of the Killer Draft: "The open window is a force to be reckoned with in German life. Knowing exactly when and how to open a window the right way is an essential skill not to be taken lightly. But mastering the art of lüften, the airing out of rooms, can be tricky business."

Mobilizing American voters in Germany:
Voter advocacy groups call on American citizens living abroad to register for U.S. presidential election.

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Saturday, August 07, 2004

Was soll der Quatsch??

Just when I think I got it all figured out, they go and change the rules on me. *sigh* In 1998, before I was here, some sort of consortium decided to reform the rules for German grammar and spelling. Many words that were until then written with ß (a hard sz sound) were to be spelled with ss. The word for street is an example; Straße became Strasse. The word daß (that) became dass; Maria hat gesagt, daß die neue Rechtschreibreform doof ist. Maria said that the new orthography rules are dumb. (Ja, ich weiss/weiß, dass/daß der letzte Satz nicht ganz richtig ist. Hast Du meinen Haftungsausschluss/ß oben nicht gelesen?)

So yesterday the Springer und Spiegel publishing houses, the two biggest publishers in Germany, decided they were going to scrap the new reforms and go back to the "classic" way of doing things. Soon after the announcement other big newspapers and publishers joined in and said to hell with the new rules we are gonna start kickin' it old school.

What does this mean for me and others who speak German as a second language? I don't know. I learned the new way. I know some of the old spelling but that is about it. There was also something different about the usage of commas in the main clause and subordinate clause. I'm not sure if it will affect me at home, with friends, or in the supermarket, but it might at work in my correspondence with clients and other people I have to deal with. We shall see.

Here is a link about the rules.
Here is a link about Springer and Spiegel and their decision.

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Friday, August 06, 2004

It's only Rock and Roll

We were supposed to play tomorrow on top of some dam somewhere opening up for Torfrock. That translates as "Peat Moss Rock" or something. Their fans are known to get wild. Wild like throwing tomatoes and other objects. I don't know, I've just heard. Their claim to fame is that they recorded the theme song to a cartoon series called "Werner". So we were supposed to open for them tomorrow. If it would have gone through we would have played for a few hundred people (500+ by some estimates). Some history...

First the gig was booked and we had to cancel because we don't have a steady bass player. Fine, whatever. That's how it goes.

Since I thought the gig was canceled I had planned with Jens to go down to Southern Germany this weekend and participate in some weird ancient German tradition called a Kirchweih*. I had wanted to do this for years and was really looking forward to it.

Then we got a bass player together who knows the songs and said he would sit in with us. So the show was back on and I had to cancel with Jens. Damn. I really wanted to go but the chance to play for that many people doesn't come along everyday.

Today I get a call that the whole show was called off because the promoter forgot (and this is just hearsay because I can't believe anyone can be this stupid) to arrange the sound system. When he realized his folly he tried to book one today and with such short notice it was impossible without spending an arm and a leg. I'm sure there are many other interesting details to which I am not privy but it's a colossal fuck-up nonetheless.

This means I could have gone to the Kirchweih but it was too late as jens was already underway and I would have to take Mon and Tues off and I couldn't do it on such short notice (scheduled meetings, appointments, facade of professionalism, the usual).

Yes it sucks but what can you do? Nada zip zero stingy wit dinero. Typical Rock and Roll if you ask me though.

*Kirchweih- sort of like a church's birthday or local fair but in this case it was different. In this small village, somewhere near Nuremburg, it has been the tradition for hundreds of years, that starting on Saturday all the single men in the village get good and drunk and go out into the forest and find a nice tree. Then they cut it down and cut off all the branches (Ah yes, copious amounts of alcohol and sharp implements of destruction. What could go wrong?). The tree is then dragged into the center of the village and stood straight up. There it must stand until monday night. The men have to protect the tree from invaders from the neighboring villages who will surely try to steal the tree in order to embarrass the village elders or something like that. Nevermind that no one from any neighboring villages has tried to steal the tree in like the last 500 years. It is tradition and it must be kept. While the tree is under heavy guard the guards are heavily intoxicated. So basically it is just an excuse for the single men in the village to drink for 3 days straight. Why they need an excuse I don't know but more power to 'em I say. What a great tradition it is. Or so I have been told. Who could blame me for wanting to participate?

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I'm Rick James, bitch!!: The funky flag is flying at half mast.

UPDATE: He's alive! It was all a hoax! No, just kidding. He's still dead but I wanted to relay a story that was told to me by one of Rick's road assistants, who was an engineer I used to assist for. Gresh, as we will refer to him (some of you know exactly who I'm talking about), said they had a break in the tour schedule in the early 80's and were staying in a hotel for a few days. Rick James invited a bunch of people up to his suite and as soon as the doors were closed he pulled out a huge bowl full of cocaine. "Aiiight!! Nobody getting outta here til this bowls empty!!" Gresch said they were forbidden to leave until the bowl's contents were gone. So he, Rick James and about 10 other people stayed in the room for a few days till the bowl was empty.

I would like to reiterate that I don't know if the story is true. It was from a supposed first-hand source but considering that the Super-FreakTM himself was involved I could see it having a kernel of truth.

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Monday, August 02, 2004


BBC NEWS | Europe | Hunting Germany's linguistic gems

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