27 July 2010 9:55am
an unfortunate side effect of discussing my impending exciting trip to paris with phil is that somehow i got myself stuck in a duran duran loop that i now cannot get out off. the catalyst was, of course, the video for a view to a kill, which i fondly remember as being so exciting at the time. james bond AND duran duran AND grace jones? wow. push me over with a feather.
i want so badly to get to the eiffel tower and find nick rhodes pretending to be a photographer while grace jones runs around like a ninja. a girl can dream, can’t she?
what’s got me in a bit of tizzy is i can’t stop thinking about the song “planet earth,” which is on their first album. that album was released in 1981, went nowhere, and was rereleased in 1983 when they were a little more famous. the thing i can’t seem to find out about anywhere is a minor variation in the lyrics, where, after le bon says “TV sound,” there is the call-and-answer sort of reply, “switch it off!” this is how the first version i ever heard goes, as my sister, of course, had both versions of the album and probably listened to the first one preferentially.
i have had trouble finding that version ever since, and the other does not include that response. instead, silence. without three little words i find there is a big hole in the middle of the song. i always viewed this as a TV-originated conspiracy, obviously, but i really can’t find any information to confirm this either way.
THIS is what happens when i’m awakened at 8 am by jackhammers and then have waaay too much coffee and no food and then spend too much time on google. minor variations on 30-year old new wave songs become intrinsically important to the meaning of life.
so, right, back to what pretends to pass as some sort of linear narrative.
heiko called me saturday night, interrupting my attempts to get back into the story of berlin, and i left to meet him at café mocca. mocca is where heiko and sara originally met, sara’s first hang-out in town, and where we spent many hours on the wifi over the frigid days of christmas. it is perhaps a bit pricey, so i haven’t been hanging out there. actually, compared to Poland everything here is a bit pricey.
mocca is the name of the café, and it is also the name of the cat who hangs out there. i found heiko at the bar on his laptop, mocca the cat sprawled beside him. he told me that usually the cat likes to sleep on his lap, but today he came in dirty so that is his punishment.
30 July 2010 2:37pm
i can’t blame heiko for the last interruption, as it was entirely self-inflicted. in general i’ve had trouble telling stories here. not cool. in fact, i literally walked away from the last post and never ever came back. hmmm.
sara has triumphantly returned to dessau, and i am currently typing while she writes postcards back home to ottawa. she got in yesterday and it almost feels like it hasn’t been 7 months since we saw each other last. in a little while we are heading off to her friend nancy’s house so they can have a german lesson while i write my little heart out in the corner, and then nancy will feed us. exciting.
the dynamic of this town obviously changes when friend with local knowledge is reasserted into the equation. i mean, i’m in the same house, but it’s almost like i’ve just arrived in a new situation altogether, which makes life somewhat exciting.
last night we went for food and coffee with milot and nancy, who are some amazing people, let me tell you, and i got to hear all the gossip of dessau while they all tried to talk me into staying in germany with them. sigh.
everyone in germany wants me to stay here.
ok, german lesson time. someday i will be a good and regular weblog-writing person again.
3:12pm
