i heart venn diagrams

only in berlin

this is berlin kunst edition

every time you come across a table of edible poo, it is generally accompanied by the universal sigh, "only in berlin."

i get it, i eat artist shit

berlin and its affordable lifestyle supports an entire sub population of under-appreciated artists and creative types, we do all love that. we just wish we could filter out the crap sometimes. or, there are some nights when it just doesn't matter.

take nacht und nebel, or night and fog, a wonderful evening of anything goes. street after street, every gallery or whatever space in neukoln open its doors to wonderful craziness. you purchase a large 1liter beer and take it with you as you enter place after place thinking, the next one can't be this weird, let's stay here for a while. butthe next one surpasses the one before that, it never ends.

exhibit a. boomerangs..and stuff.

exhibit b. the bicycle powered dj hip hop show. this place had a tv showing something, a documetary of who cares because here come the guys in spandex! backed by a plastic sheet showing vintage cycling clips, dj cycle 1 and 2 flank mc ridiculous. 

tour de DJ

  

so then, when you come across a glowing mannequin on fire, it's not so weird anymore..

how to embarass yourself in front of co-workers

on a friday ngiht after work, an NGO nearby had an office-warming. i'm thinking free drinks and food why not. so we go there and it's this 1984 cement GDR/DDR marvel. small offices with small windows, lime green walls and padded doors (so the SS don't hear what you're up to), foward-thinking unisex bathrooms and cramped hallway corridors.

urinals are out of order

 in the small conference room there were munchies erdnuss flips (look like cheese puffs, only peanut flavor -heaven) and socially conscious beer and organic white wine. there were some rather long speeches, during which my colleagues would periodically poke me and ask if i understand. this happens a lot. and so as usual, i nod, sure, as in yes, i udnerstand most of it, but honestly it's just really boring so i eventually zone out and stop listening and wonder what bratislava is like or what i will eat later. this is also true for most meetings and discussions, sorry.

so after the terribly long and boring speeches, and one rather funny intern showed pictures of the old parking spaces, my wonderful colleagues and i sigh at the prospect of friday night networking. we examine our empty wine glasses, promptly fill them up and wander out to the stairwell where a DJ has recently set up. i don't know who said it, but i heard it "we might as well just dance."

my wine glass was magically refilled and there you go, 730pm dance party. i may have done something that qualifies as "grinding." our organization was the sole one represented on this dance floor, though i did try desperately to get the cute intern to join us, he just seemed to think we were aliens.
 there were glares are questionable stares and "are they really dancing like that" but you know what, we just proved who is more fun, and who will probably not get invited back to the christmas party.  

DE. Do Easy

i have just enrolled in the school of DE. the discipline of do easy. 
you should too.  
"how fast can you do it and get it done?"

new building mural on my street

a few weeks ago some guys in grey hoodies showed up every morning at 7 am (early risers!) to repaint the building next door. they worked confidently on this large image with nothing but notes to follow. i never heard them mutter a single word, they were like graffiti ninjas as the little turkish kids who live in the apartments would open their windows or come out on the street and ask what are you doing? what color is that? why are you wearing a mask? what is that for?

 what are you going to do there?

wurst cake - kitsch n classics edition

a special kitsch n classics edition for you.
my adobrable neighbor celebrated his birthday with a kuchen und wurst party - i presume the typical 4pm cake and coffee that turns into a bbq or something. i though i would kick it up a notch and just end th e party early with an amazing..shazam! wurstcake.
i consulted the venerable chef raspberry for ideas. corn bread basics, with some meats.
i went to the knockoff ikea to find a good cake pan. the one i picked was loaf sized, non-stick, sturdy, and had a picture of a holiday fruitcake and colorful jellies and nuts and powdered sugar and snowflakes. oh cake pan you could not be more wrong today. 
instructions from the chef:
125g cornmeal
150g AP Flour
40g sugar
20g honey
9g baking powder
2g baking soda
7g salt
100g whole egg
200g sour cream
100g milk
50g butter
Mix dry together and add all wet ingredients. Add in the chopped wurst and bake in a greased pan at whatever 350F is for 30-40 minutes. Put in some chopped rosemary and maybe some chopped cooked onion.
so i bought some organic mittelwurst (no idea what that is, took me an hour to pick it from all of its wurst cousins), cooked 'em up with onions, shallots. i didn't have a scale so there was a lot guesswork.
in the end, i had a concotion that rather tasted like cornbread. the air of my apartment, entirely infused with the smokey bacon like smell of the wurst. fresh rosemary and voila.

only issue was the whole what is baking powder what is baking soda, why are they different and why do you need both. i only had baeckpulver, whatever that is, and i just dumped a bunch in.

mixin' wurst

overall, tasty as hell. on a nice cakedish among the sweeter variety cakes.

best wurstcake

the kids at the party all grabbed some against their mother's wishes "honey, that cake has WURST in it, don't you want the chocolate cheesecake?"
nein! wurstkuchen!
later on i beat that little rat at pickup sticks.
the second version had cheese, smaller pieces of wurst. sweet, savory, delicious.
best of the wurst:
need more eggs, a bit floury, needs more gooey.
and need to take it higher - fluffier might be better. it's dense, tasty, hefty, more like the fruitcake on that picture now that i think of it.