My License is Still Good for Driving, Feathers on top of Squirrels on top of Springs, and Tiny Cars.

The evening before my birthday I went to a comedy show. There was a band with a beautiful, beautiful (Brazilian?) singer whose voice was a screaming mix of Billie Holiday, Amanda Palmer, Alela Diane, and Adelina Patti. She sang the blues and it was gorgeous. The headline comedian had a stand-up/piano humor set which he pulled of quite well. After the show a cozy group of friends, who just discovered it was my birthday eve, threw me a wonderfully make-shift birthday celebration. :)

Cozy apartment, cozy people :)

Make-Shift doesn't come with cake, candles for a wish were there in plenty.

Will gave us an exclusive poetry reading.
Chocolates and champagne were in abundance.
As were beautiful voices. For the night, in the least, my sometimes musical heart was awoken. I went home, (I live circa 20 feet away) grabbed my guitar, and the rest of the evening was full of song. It was a blast to read music again, even more so on account of the German writing. They don't have "B!" They have "H" instead! C-D-E-F-G-H-A! how funny! They also don't use accidentals in chord names. C# isn't C#, rather Cis. and c# is cism. I love that reading music surprised me, I haven't felt that joy in a while. I love hearing a song and I love reading a song. Sometimes I'll pull out my real book and simply read along. The analysis part of music, the mathematics and the logic are so pleasing to me. The functionality of it, how it actually works is fascinating.
Sometimes things excite me uncontrollably. Lately my excitement stems from words, (for instance: the word 'puzzle' in German is "Geduldspiel," literally, "patient-game." Doesn't that tickle your feet?! Game of Patience!) or weather that I've never felt before, or weather that i've felt before but in a different season, or children who do the tiniest things different here, or children who do the same things but in unbelievably different settings and it's normal (for instance: Sitting in a packed bar for a soccer game, full of men screaming together and chugging dark, dark German beers, one can't help but notice the mother who casually, without any concern, though with certain infinite motherly love, simply sits, smiles, and watches as her learning-to-walk two and a half year old boy waddles curiously and carefree through the stomping legs of burly fans who somehow know not to trample the toddler. It's like they are used to it. I've often had the sense that everyone here raises children together. It's noticeably a community effort.), but it's been a long time since I've jumped around in my seat because of a music sheet. Feeling that again was the best part of my birthday night.
And the people, of course.

This is a pig with a four-leaf clover.
Wednesday was my real birthday-day. The after-school tutor house where I work made me smile for the afternoon. My co-worker and friend made an incredibly delicious cherry cheesecake (cherries made me think of dad; you would have loved it). The head teacher purchased enough gifts so that almost every student of mine could give me one. They were all extremely German. My favorite: "kläpperle," a southern Germany percussive instrument similiar to wood blocks. They are used during Carnival, which is in two weeks.
I also received the four-leaf clover holding pig above, the ultimate, ultimate symbol of German luck. Germans love pigs. If someone tells you you have a pig, they are calling you oh so lucky.
Now I have a pig.
My students! We ordered a pizza for some pre-cake substance. :)
This is a dust-feather thing attached to a drill. I need not mention that it is art.
Friday night was "Museum Night" in Basel, Switzerland. On this once-a-year evening, all the museums (30 of them) are open from 6pm-2am, and they are free for younglings under 25. If you are of the older variety, you pay a small one time fee and can then visit them all. The Tinguely Museum, my favorite, is named after Jean Tinguely, a metamechanical sculptor man who built things out of things and made them move. I can not imagine how much fun he had. He must have gotten so excited every single time he saw a piece of shrapnel on the street, a bottle cap, or a shape in a cloud that he could later physicalize. His works are meant to satire the numb overproduction of industrial stuff. Some of his works were even one time projects that self-destructed. All of his works are connected to a power source and a pedal. If you step on the pedal they move, often in a jagged and imperfect repetitive circle.

I thought this was one of the coolest exhibits. It's a car. When you step on its pedal, all of the jaws start slowing biting and the car lights shine blindingly bright. There is also a somewhat disfigured bear sitting in the passanger seat who moves around. Among other things.
Could anything be cooler!? It's a bike! It works! You can sit on it and pedal. When you pedal, the pen/crayon/marker, you can change it out, moves sparatically and makes you a painting! What an idea: industrialized, numb reproduction of art.
I wish I had taken a picture of the entire apparatus, though this is by far the best part. A piano played by a little toy wooden man.
The craze behind me is just one big mess of moving parts. You can walk on it (it has stairs, three levels) while everything is moving. It includes a horse from a carousel, a large spinning brush from a car wash, many wheels, plants that are horizontal, garden gnomes that are upside down, and christmas lights.
I don't know what this affair is supposed to be. It had lots of conveyer belts and buckets that kept going back and forth. Wish I got the name of the thing.
Same as above, lower and opposite side. Some of the masks on this turning machine are from Fasnacht, a carnival celebration. The largest one is in fact in Basel. It's quickly approaching. It starts at 4am on a Monday morning. There are roughly 20,000 who take part, that's to say, who wear customes of many sorts with the criteria: it should be impossible to identify yourself. At 4am the city of Basel shuts out every single light, including street lights. The only light comes from lanterns. The celebration begins. Bars are open the entire 72 hours that the Fasnacht lasts. It sounds like the maddest, most fantastical and possibly scariest hullabaloo ever. Monday the 15th of February. I can not wait. Jenny Holzer had her very first exhibit in Basel for Museum night!

Jenny Holzer is a word/LED-display artist who displays words/scripts in large, often outdoor settings. Some of her words tell a story, some are just phrases, some are just words. Some are up-to-date news reports. She had an exhibit here reporting Iran and Afghanistan relations. Pretty cool. Can't look at it for too long.
Jenny Holzer phrases of the day: 'Stupid People Shouldn't Breed' and 'The Wish to Reproduce is a Death Wish.'
Thank you Jenny Holzer.
I thought it was simply awesome that the entrance to the Jewish Museum was a piece of cloth hanging from a ceiling.
A few random photos from today, but first! My little smoking man! You can't tell he is smoking but I tell no lie; you put incense in his belly and then he smokes it! A Christmas gift from Dresden. :)
Little kids are awesome. Dude's just chillin'.

The demonstration of the day. Just recently an allowance in Germany was granted to permit the Military to enter schools to promote military involvment. This protest stood against military influence in schools, arguing that war teachings and military information should, in education, be taught by teachers and education professionals, not by the military institution itself.
"Against psychological
warfare in schools
YOUTH OFFICERS OUT
OUT OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES"
And, for a kick, a toy car roams the streets of Europe. Poor little guy probably gets laughed at all the time.

I don't feel I can leave my apartment until march 1st. The amount of work I have to do is a little overwhelming HOWEVER, plans are slowly, slowly forming as the largest break of all time nears. Berlin, Prague, Zürich, London, Turkey... trains are flying in my head. I gotta work for 'em though.
With time. With time I will finally be on the road.
Until then I will research and write, research and write, research and write and repeat. The hard part is starting. I'm not quite there yet.
I have a presentation on Tuesday on Slam Poetry and I get to slam for my class. I'm looking forward to it. :)

peace.