Good morning Starshine! If you, as did Caro and Martin, managed to stay awake through my last post, then you will be ready to for this.
It's called "Though I Like You" and is, like most of my songs, a somewhat witchy advertisement for a better life for myself. There are some interesting samples on there of boys I recorded on the street on one of my weird visits to an English-speaking land. Which reminds me: has anyone ever heard of "The Dictionary of Imaginary Places"? I seem to remember reading a hardcover version a long time ago...
Friday, July 9, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Day 54 Song 54 - Mountain Climbing Baby
Three days of bronchitis! Yuk! But I dealt with it in record time... My approach to illness has become "holistic" over the years, partly because of learning from my own medical history. Since I was three I had an annual tonsilitis problem, which would have been practically fatal if my parents hadn't given me antibiotics for it, but as you may know "antibiotics are often overrated". They caused some long-term side effects with my physical well-being, one being a constantly weak immune system. Around 6 years ago I got sick with tonsilitis on a weekend and didn't have health coverage anyway, so I went to see my friend's most amazing homeopath, Georg Kindler. He lives in P-berg, Berlin, and at first I thought it was all bullshit, but I had to go along with it cos I was dying like a dog. He gave me some crazy snake bite essence, and bee sting whatever and I swear - within 12 hours I was back on my feet! Literally! Then I went back to him for other long-term complaints of mine, but there was alas no quick cure. I had to teach my body to be strong again, and to heal itself.
So over the years I gradually changed my diet to be less sugary and more grainy and vegetably (pretty much according to Georg's guidelines), and I only eat meat from the wholefoods supermarket (bio laden)... And also I REALLY BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF TEA! That's actually Georg's main rap. He's big into concocting special teas for your ailments... But anyway, it's been 6 years since I took my last antibiotics! I had some kind of an internal infection a few months ago (diagnosed by the hospital post-partum), and went straight to him - he gave me a bottle of mixed homeopathic liquids, some homeopathic balls and of course - a lot of tea! Since my body had been trained to look after itself instead of relying on antibiotics all the time, it took immediately to the treatment. I was tested a week later and the infection was gone! So thank you Georg!
One thing I also learned through the experience was this: an infection isn't necessarily something completely foreign and evil marching through your body. It is often just "higher levels" of this and "lower levels" of that. I found that out from the hospital lab ladies. So in the end all you have to do really is to stay calm and try and get your levels balanced. I hope that doesn't sound naive!
I am however a true believer in giving yourself a chance to take control of your own body's chemistry and health. It's not only the doctors who can cure you.
But also, if you don't succeed with natural healing the first time you get hit with a disease, then leave it till the next time. The second time around you will start noticing the symptoms a lot earlier, and know what's coming. Then use natural medicine to nip it in the bud. And if you beat it naturally once, then the chances are high that your body will build its own healthy immunity to the problem!
If you know any mountain climbing babies then you will like this little scratch track from this morning - and Jay Romeo loves singing along!
So over the years I gradually changed my diet to be less sugary and more grainy and vegetably (pretty much according to Georg's guidelines), and I only eat meat from the wholefoods supermarket (bio laden)... And also I REALLY BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF TEA! That's actually Georg's main rap. He's big into concocting special teas for your ailments... But anyway, it's been 6 years since I took my last antibiotics! I had some kind of an internal infection a few months ago (diagnosed by the hospital post-partum), and went straight to him - he gave me a bottle of mixed homeopathic liquids, some homeopathic balls and of course - a lot of tea! Since my body had been trained to look after itself instead of relying on antibiotics all the time, it took immediately to the treatment. I was tested a week later and the infection was gone! So thank you Georg!
One thing I also learned through the experience was this: an infection isn't necessarily something completely foreign and evil marching through your body. It is often just "higher levels" of this and "lower levels" of that. I found that out from the hospital lab ladies. So in the end all you have to do really is to stay calm and try and get your levels balanced. I hope that doesn't sound naive!
I am however a true believer in giving yourself a chance to take control of your own body's chemistry and health. It's not only the doctors who can cure you.
But also, if you don't succeed with natural healing the first time you get hit with a disease, then leave it till the next time. The second time around you will start noticing the symptoms a lot earlier, and know what's coming. Then use natural medicine to nip it in the bud. And if you beat it naturally once, then the chances are high that your body will build its own healthy immunity to the problem!
If you know any mountain climbing babies then you will like this little scratch track from this morning - and Jay Romeo loves singing along!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Day 53 Song 53 - Rubberband
I must apologise to my regular readers for the space between songs, but me and magnet man have been battling with babysitting vs timeshare vs household responsibilities issues. As you can imagine, if you have or know anyone with a kid. It can be intense sometimes, and add to it a bout of bronchitis and a spontaneous getaway to the parents-in-law, and you have a "blog? what blog?" situation. At the moment any spare time I have is dedicated to bathing or watching Nurse Jackie.
Good news is that Magnet Man got his elterngeld erlaubnis this morning, so looks like he can take time off work soon to help look after the little tacker, and then this blog will really take off!!! I'm already organising a photo shoot with Bea Jugert, my amazing artist friend, and Juri a great photographer friend of a friend, and my Dad has agreed to help out with the "e-marketing". Some may say "nuts and bolts ain't sexy", but I know you, dear reader, care about that kind of stuff and find it interesting.
Enjoy this track! Play it on repeat!
Good news is that Magnet Man got his elterngeld erlaubnis this morning, so looks like he can take time off work soon to help look after the little tacker, and then this blog will really take off!!! I'm already organising a photo shoot with Bea Jugert, my amazing artist friend, and Juri a great photographer friend of a friend, and my Dad has agreed to help out with the "e-marketing". Some may say "nuts and bolts ain't sexy", but I know you, dear reader, care about that kind of stuff and find it interesting.
Enjoy this track! Play it on repeat!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Day 52 Song 52 - Like A Magnet
It's hard to talk about a song when it relates to the person you're with at the moment. If you are really curious, then ask me about it sometime in person :-)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Day 51 Song 51 - Your Eyes Very Good
There's a lovely guy called Michael Henk who lives in Neukoelln. He has an amazing 2 room apartment which is just filled to the brim with fancy equipment. He's the kind of guy who can solder his own anything. He got a whole lot of eqs from the old Hansa Studio (David Bowie anyone?) and soldered them together to make a mega-mixdesk which nobody can deny. He's also a multi-instrumentalist - plays bass guitar, normal guitar, e-guitar, keys and sings real sexy too.
We got very high on champagne one night and made this little diamond:
We got very high on champagne one night and made this little diamond:
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Day 50 Song 50 - Into the Sunset
If you're an avid Schneider TM fan then you will agree with me that he is an excellent harmonica player. I wrote this song while I was going out with him (there's a bit of ancient history for you!) and he went for a tour around the U.S. I knew that he could have called me if he'd made more of an effort, but "he was touring and he didn't have time.." and you know how girlfriends get when you don't call them except when you're drunk like twice..
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sorry!
My mac is back in the shop again..! Due to too much crashing and banging me and the mac doctors (imagine in guertel strasse - highly recommended!) decided to get me a new harddrive and update to 10.5.6. So if you are regularly reading me (Martin Busse in particular :-)) then I hope you'll accept my apologies and tune in tomorrow to hear three (3!) new musical updates.
Good night!
Good night!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Day 49 Song 49 - Omnichordd Lullaby
Do you know what an Omnichord is? If you are inspired by music but can't really play an instrument (like me, no jokes) then I seriously recommend you buy one of these on ebay. They are around 50€ but well worth it. Just touch a key, any key, and you are in Heaven playing a sonnet to an Angel. Really! Did you ever see/hear a musician called Cortney Tidwell? She played in the Schokoladen in Berlin-Mitte one night and her song with the Omnichord and the Drumkit just blew me right away. So I borrowed one for a few months and made a small series of songs with it. This is one! And a little video of my boy Jay Romeo reading a book, with the bizarre bilingual parental units mumbling in the background. Enjoy!
Day 48 Song 48 - Tourmaline
When I was eleven my mother decided to take my brother and I on a trip to Alice Springs, the red centre of Australia. On the Saturday before we departed I went to the barber and said "Give me a haircut like his" and pointed at my brother, who was sporting a small crew cut. After pleading with me and calling my parents, the barber, who was an Italian who'd known me from birth, agreed to do it. I just didn't want the burden of conditioner and combing agony all the way through the red dust. My mother, who likes her drink, brought a girlfriend, who likes her drink, and her son, who although just turned eighteen, also liked his drink. Need I say more. The trip was a ramshackle affair involving many 3 day stops in towns so that everyone could get over their hangovers. My mother needed to drink to get over her fear of driving long distances (she didn't drink and drive - she was always very careful about that) which had come about through a horrible car accident we'd had when I was six and my brother was three. It makes sense when you think about it from a therapist's point of view, although on paper here it seems bizarre.
Anyway, among other things (getting molested by the eighteen year old among them) I played cards and waited around at the campsite while my mother spent 3 days in the Todd River drinking with the Aborigines. This was frowned upon in Alice Springs as they have (I don't know how it is now, but back then it was pretty serious) a strict segregation tradition of whites and blacks. So she got thrown in the slammer (a story I once relayed in a Vice interview about my first brush with the police). I was pretty traumatised when she finally re-appeared after going missing for 3 days, as she was covered in cuts and bruises and looking really shook up.
Growing up in Australia, the reality of the desert is never far away from your consciousness. "Wake in Fright" is an example of this, and "Tourmaline" by Randolph Stow, a story of a bankrupt ghost town is another.
The girlfriend who liked her drink ended up being incarcerated in Dubai a few years later after being found drinking alcohol, and her son committed suicide. So all in all the trip to Alice Springs remains as a tragic, beautiful, wild, freaky, fucked-up memory for me, remaining pure only in the fact that my brother and I were so young, and everyone else so damaged.
Anyway, among other things (getting molested by the eighteen year old among them) I played cards and waited around at the campsite while my mother spent 3 days in the Todd River drinking with the Aborigines. This was frowned upon in Alice Springs as they have (I don't know how it is now, but back then it was pretty serious) a strict segregation tradition of whites and blacks. So she got thrown in the slammer (a story I once relayed in a Vice interview about my first brush with the police). I was pretty traumatised when she finally re-appeared after going missing for 3 days, as she was covered in cuts and bruises and looking really shook up.
Growing up in Australia, the reality of the desert is never far away from your consciousness. "Wake in Fright" is an example of this, and "Tourmaline" by Randolph Stow, a story of a bankrupt ghost town is another.
The girlfriend who liked her drink ended up being incarcerated in Dubai a few years later after being found drinking alcohol, and her son committed suicide. So all in all the trip to Alice Springs remains as a tragic, beautiful, wild, freaky, fucked-up memory for me, remaining pure only in the fact that my brother and I were so young, and everyone else so damaged.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Day 47 Song 47 - Jeannie in the Rushes
London London London! What a Lovely town! Max Cole - if you're out there, this is for you!
Max and I met on the fateful Red Bull Music Academy Capetown in 2004 or some such ancient time. We got drunk a LOT and drank a LOT of Red Bull. We also swam in the pool, the ocean and DJed and danced for 2 weeks straight. If you're considering entering the Red Bull thing, then DO IT, it's maybe kind of drinks propoganda and not much academy really, but it's AWESOME.
Anyway, one time in London Max and I recorded this song on his brand new M-box.
Big arps.
Max and I met on the fateful Red Bull Music Academy Capetown in 2004 or some such ancient time. We got drunk a LOT and drank a LOT of Red Bull. We also swam in the pool, the ocean and DJed and danced for 2 weeks straight. If you're considering entering the Red Bull thing, then DO IT, it's maybe kind of drinks propoganda and not much academy really, but it's AWESOME.
Anyway, one time in London Max and I recorded this song on his brand new M-box.
Big arps.
Day 46 Song 46 - S-Bahn
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Technical Difficulties
I must apologise, faithful reader, but my computer is totally fucked and won't allow me to upload any songs at the moment. I'm taking it to the shop today to get everything taken off and put back on again in the hope that it fixes the problem. Hopefully I'll be back blogging by Friday night. So till then rummage through my archives and leave me sympathetic comments. Thank you!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Day 43 Song 43 - Gypsy (Say Say)
If you are familiar with the latest releases of Brian Cares, colourful and talented resident Bar 25 DJ (Berlin, Berlin) then you will be more than aware of this song. It's called "Gypsy" but I call it "Say Say". We made it together a couple of years ago when we spent a couple of weeks joined at the hip (metaphorically speaking) and enjoyed many hours sharing musical inspiration together in various kneippe between Treptow and Grell Strasse. When I asked him to say some words about DJing tekno he said "It's easy! Just like playing Lego!" God love you Bri.
Day 42 Song 42 - Inxs
This is the notorious Inxs cover song.
I still love it!
I hope you do too.
Today's post is dedicated to my regular, yet hidden, listener Herr Dirk Holzberger. Gute besserung wunsch ich Dir, und komm gut nach hause!
I still love it!
I hope you do too.
Today's post is dedicated to my regular, yet hidden, listener Herr Dirk Holzberger. Gute besserung wunsch ich Dir, und komm gut nach hause!
Day 41 Song 41 - Great Skate Date
The weather is getting hotter! I hope you're digging out your sunscreen and unpacking your fan :-)
And now my damn mac is going down...
Sorry for the sporadic posts - after 3 days of struggling I am facing the fact that I have to take my computer to the doctor...
BTW if you want to stream my music, just go here to my soundcloud site, and press "play" on the first song on the page!
And now my damn mac is going down...
Sorry for the sporadic posts - after 3 days of struggling I am facing the fact that I have to take my computer to the doctor...
BTW if you want to stream my music, just go here to my soundcloud site, and press "play" on the first song on the page!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Day 40 Song 40 - Sarah Ellen
I don't know exactly who this song is for. It's seems to me a sort of cathartic projection of my own neuroses about belonging and division. "I have my cell phone" reminds me of Meredith Monk's Gotham City where the lady squeals "I have my money, I have my phone - "hello? hello?" - and i still have my allergies!" ;-)
Does it seem bitchy? Yeh, well I suppose it is that.. ;-)
Does it seem bitchy? Yeh, well I suppose it is that.. ;-)
Day 39 Song 39 - I'm a Bitch
We all thought this song was written by Alanis Morisette, but actually it's by a lady called Meredith Brooks! I really love this song, and couldn't help but cover it one dark night in San Francisco.
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