Other Things

All I really want to talk about is trumpet.

But this post is just stories from the week.

Just know that in all these stories and behind all these words, all I'm really thinking is... trumpet trumpet trumpet trumpet.

Monday: Monday wasn't really anything special.

Tuesday: Tuesday I had work (very nice, very nice), and then Uli and I, Uli being the director of my former academic program, went to a speech given by Joachim Gauk. Joachim Gauk is a well-respected politician in Germany with a long history. He was born and raised in the DDR and has served as an educator of the DDR's life and methods. He was the first appointed commissioner for the Stasi Records in 1990. Last year, he was a presidential candidate for both the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and the Green parties. What's most interesting is that almost all the parties here in Germany would have accepted him as their candidate. In fact, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), one of three parties who officially backed a different candidate, and a party that is far away from the SPD on a conservative/liberal spectrum, also gave support to Gauk. Can you imagine a candidate on a Democratic ticket in the US also recieving backing from the Republican party? Or vice versa? I don't think their are many American politicians who are saying yes, he would also do a wonderful job, of other-party candidates. But I don't know much about politics.

Anyway the speech was fantastic. He talked for an hour and didn't use a single note card. He told stories of the DDR with incredible engagement. Two take away points that I can easily sum up:

1.) Don't cultivate fear.

2.) 'Either/Or' mentalities are no good.

Both points I can look at from an American perspective, which is, granted, an entirely different perspective than from where he got those words. USA is not East Germany.

A couple nights before I went to this speech, I had a conversation with a German girl named Sara who had spent a year studying abroad in Tanzania. The only news program they had there was CNN. She expressed to me how appalled she was at its content and presentation. She said when she watched the program, every minute felt like a life-or-death scenario.

I agree with her. CNN is awful, and it is, unfortunately, representative of many news broadcasts in the US. In a large number of American news outlets, things often seem to have to fit extremes. Either, Or. Things are superlative. We must be attentive and wary to very frightful situations. There's more drama to news than there is humanity.

Related story: I was at a party a couple of nights ago and this american guy named Jeff introduced himself to me. Jeff was drunk. I was not drunk, and I was happy. I did not want to talk with him, and for I while, I was able to not do so. In fact, after being ignorant to his presence for long enough, he went away. However. Later on in the evening, someone else revealed to him that I was also American, which he had not gathered before. He quickly found his way back to me, this time with much greater speaking abilities, as he knew he could switch to English.

Jeff is a pupil of extreme-hood. Everything was Either Or. He immediately identified me as an elitist asshole when he discovered I come from Boston. Of course I am. He immediately knew that I was in Germany for the same reason he was; because America is a shithole. When I didn't answer his question, why do you think Freiburg is better than the US, he volunteered to answer it himself. He said he likes Freiburg because for the first time in his life, he doesn't need to own a car. Now, I will generalize a bit here. Yes, it is much easier to live without a car here than it is in the US. In fact, there are many places in the US where you can not live without a car. But. There are also places like that in Germany. And this isn't the point. This is the point:

Jeff then proceeded to state that no U.S. city of 200,000 (roughly the population in Freiburg) is livable without a car (he even mentioned three cities that he had been too). He asked me to name one, and I did: Madison, WI, a city of roughly 200,000 where I, and many others I know, lived for three years without a car. He responded with; No. He told me that it snows there and in the winter, everyone needs a car.

That is what was ultimately upsetting; the fact that I represent living experience of auto-free live in Madison, WI USA, but my story was not accepted because it's not extreme enough. It's not, "yes, Madison and the US are such shitholes because you can't live anywhere without a car." That statement is not true. But maybe it's more exciting than "some places in the US require a car and some don't. It depends. Some aspects of America are bad and some are good. And some are okay. You know. It depends. And all of that goes for Germany too."

You can't learn things if facts for you are two-dimensional, and you can't talk with people either.

Wednesday: Wednesday I went to a Freiburg/Madison hosted party celebrating AYF's (my former academic program) 50th birthday. I saw some old teachers and that was a blast.

I also had my first lesson with my new trumpet teacher. It was great. All I will say for now is; I am so excited to practice.

Thursday: Every thursday night there is a jazz session at a bar called Cafe Ruef. Nick and I went. I've gotten a lot of exposure lately to many different levels of experience and jazz musicianship. I like hearing what other people are working on, perfecting, and struggling with.

Friday: We cooked pumpkin soup and couscous. Then we went to a party. I met this guy named Jeff.

Saturday: Kind of like Monday.

Today: Today Nick and I went to a concert of a jazz trio called The Tingvall Trio. It was rockin'.

I love notes:

Whole-tone fun!!
Mozart I'm copying youuuu.
Chet Baker.
ARBAN'S 'First Studies.' ('First Studies', and you're writing F's? That's like putting a "My First Book" sticker on the cover of an Immanuel Kant text.)

A gray day outside my window. But not inside!

I love long-tones.

Happy Sunday,

Ben.

Weeks of Snow

After moving in, two of my new roommates, Anja and Marina, and myself went for a hike on Feldberg, the tallest point in the Black Forest. I'd been skiing there two years ago and was excited to see what it looked like in the Fall. It looked incredibly similar to Winter.

This was an exceptional mid/late October day, covered in snow. Today, two weeks later, there is no snow on Feldberg. Nonetheless, I'm encouraged. There is good skiing ahead.

The strange seasonal mix made for Narnia-like collages of snow covered summers.

Myself and Anja at the beginning of the Feldberg Trail. The snow was perfect for snowballs.
These berries are very confused.

Autumn trees, summer fields, wintry mountains.
Anja and I.

A spectacular scene. I thought the whole time to myself, while following a river through green forest blanketed with snow and falling flurries, Brothers Grimm would have had endless inspiration in these woods.
Two of my cool new roommates, Marina and Anja :).

Tootles.

A Perfect Fifth.

With so much to say, it's hard to know where to start! I'm two weeks behind. I count on my photos to keep me in line on postings. One recent outing, blogworthy, was without camera and I'm waiting for photos from a friend. Other news in the last two weeks only comes in words. First, the one picture I have: Halloween!

It exists only lightly in Germany, like Voldemort's existence before he regained his body. There were parties to be found, but I was in no mood. I had a fun night with Tobi, Lucia, and family of Lucia's. We made Pumpkin Ghosts, or, Jack-O-Lanterns.

Now it is 01.11.11. Skipping back two weeks.

I moved into my new apartment. Things have since begun rolling with such precision, adherence and accord, if weeks were made of snow, these two would be the most perfect snowman you've ever seen. And if they were music my two weeks would be a Perfect Fifth.

When I moved into my new room, it was empty, waiting to take on new forms. Without anyone with whom to share it, without any foreseeable time constraints, I have a living space, an office space to build to my liking, to my needs. My room has become a place of music, a place fit for my residence. My walls are made of vibrations, my shelf full of notes, and the air sings. It is my practice space, und es wird geübt.

Days after creating my home, I went to a prospective student information session at the Jazz and Rock College, two minutes down the street from where I live. The session was terrific. A week later I had a trial lesson with the professor of Trumpet. I will start studying privately with him next week.

I've recently had the thought that finding the trumpet was finding the missing piece to my musical self: the right instrument. It plugs in. It's the doorway from me to the outside world and the outside world to me. I like it.

I have the time and space to make trumpet and music my first priority, not just in aspiration and mentality, but in physical pursuit. I am a student of music, and I feel completely engaged. German and Philosophy feel like passionate intrigues of mine, but I'm not made of them. I feel made of music, the cells in my blood. Now I'm bringing them to life.

Mocca Cabana Cafe.

Enjoy the onset of November.

-Ben.

Kandel

Tobi, my roommate and friend from last year who introduced me to the techno putzen underground, and I went for a hike on Sunday. The weather was perfect, the smell of wet leaves was in the air, and the hike was spectacular. The hike was from St. Peter to Kandel Peak, down to Waldkirch. 23 Kilometers, 14 miles hiking, about 10 miles removed from Freiburg in the Black Forest. Here are pictures.House in St. Peter with chickens, geese, and donkeys.
We had to wait a couple minutes for the cows to cross. They're pretty leisurely.
Pretty feathers.
Pretty trees.
Pretty land.
Wind power, Black Forest.
:)
Kandel Peak. Distance to Freiburg: 25Km. Distance to Boston: 5,954Km. Distance to Madison: 7,060Km.
Tobi and the Black Forest.
Not Freiburg. Denzlingen and Emmindingen, about 15Km north of Freiburg. Freiburg is poorly visible in the left edge of this photo.
Jesters in Waldkirch, 25Km Northeast of Freiburg.
Waldkirch with castle.
Monkey.
Tobi on seesaw holding Monkey's tail.

In other news. I HAVE AN APARTMENT. I have several new developments to share but they must wait for I am tired.

My address is now posted and I expect a German postman's bike full of mail by Friday.

Have a wonderful rest of the week :)

-Ben.

Biophilia

In new settings you can't help but be helpless. I wasn't much use opening CDC Friday morning because I didn't know where the rugs went in the doorway, and I didn't know which discount CD racks belonged where outside. I'm certain the process took longer than usual on account of my 'help.' I suppose that's part of investing sometimes; you slow down a bit at first and become more efficient for it later.

My first customer on Friday handed me a sheet of paper listing various piano and violin sonatas from Mozart, Beethoven, and Dvorak. I opened up P.N., an engine that searches not only for active or once active archives our store has with all our distributors, but searches a mega-database containing an unimaginable chunk of all recordings ever made, whether they are still in production or not. It's a very impressive archive. A co-worker of mine (they are very quick and seem to be keen to the fact that I might not know what I'm doing) merrily walked over to my computer, greeted the customer, and said to me "that program won't help you. I'll take it from here." He then closed out my search and pulled out a book, a yellow-pages looking book for classical cataloging. I didn't know we had a book.

Not before he was done helping this customer, a second approached me and asked for a certain Brahms work. I'm feeling not so confident in this search program and am not knowing exactly what to do, so I use our distributors search engine, but, not to worry; my other coworker flagged down the customer, lured him to his work station, and pulled out a second book.

A third customer walks in and asks for a recording of "Laudate Dominum," and now I'm thinking "YES! I know this work!" And I got really excited. You mean from the Vespers? Mozart? I even know the KV number for this piece! No way I'm not finding this in the search engine.

I didn't find it in the search engine. I did however have sufficient information to hasten the process as my coworker searched in the book. I felt GREAT!

Thirty minutes later my former professor for contemporary German poetry, for whom I performed and analysed slam poetry as my final project, entered the store. I think most things about him can be characterized by conscious direction, intent, and much passion, though all his excitement never surpasses his patience, which sets a very moderate pace for the way he walks and talks. We had a lively conversation. I told him what I was doing, he told me about his upcoming Hermann Hesse class. He said he could not help me with trumpet, but if I ever wanted to discuss writing he would be more than happy. He then asked if I would sell him the new Björk album, which had come out that day. Professor Höppner is a self-described Björk mega-fan.

Carcassonne, the Spiel des Jahres 2001, is a game in which players collectively build a landscape by placing tiles each turn. The land consists of streets, fields, and cities. Though you build the region collectively, you are competing with one another for territory. The more cities you establish, the more streets you build, and the more farm land you harvest, the better off you are.

Happy Monday :).

-Ben.

Tuba Mirum

I have a job!

It is a wonderful job. If I weren't scared of jumping to conclusions, I would call it the perfect job. I am the newest employee at CDC (Compact Disc Center). CDC is a somewhat high-end CD store in the city center, Freiburg, Breisgau, Germany. The store is cozy and well furnished, wood, good acoustics. It is one of two CD stores in Freiburg that has a classical collection. CDC also boasts a terrific jazz selection, and of course, pop/rock and all that one might expect in a CD store. It is, by all acounts, the most reputable and knowledgeable CD store in Freiburg. I could not be happier to work there. I'm learning things like: new artists, dealing with distributors (both globally and nationally), what comes out when, why some CDs can be sold for 1/3 of what other CDs can be sold for, how to disarm a security-alarmed CD, why it is actually important to know the years in which CDs come out and names of lead singers, and how to deal with customers who hum "Summertime," but insist the song they are humming is in fact "St. Louis Blues." I also now come fully stocked with an arsenal of "would you like a bag with that" variations in German.

I do not have an apartment.

It is not wonderful. There are a couple picturesque possibilities that are slim possibilities at a picturesque best. They are on the outskirts of Freiburg: quiet, river-hugging/mountain-hugged bike rides away from the city center, full of healing, fresh air, layout and space to hope for. The problem is, I'm one of thousands looking for apartments right now, and these apartments are one of hundreds available. The numbers do not work out in my favor. But I can hope and dream, at least until Tuesday morning, when I find out about these two.

I do have distractions

and must use them, so as not to become too perturbed. I recently discovered the public library here and its surprisingly plentiful music collection. I have an endless supply of Mozart and Bach. I'm learning a lot. I also have a 'killer-bunnies' like card game called 'Zombies.' The goal is to encounter 'monsters' (humans), and eat their brains. The more brains you have eaten, the more experienced of a zombie you are and the better chances you have of conquering the next monster. The more weapons you have, the better off you are as well. Weapons range from various limbs of previously killed monsters, to cooking utensils, to postboxes, to -if you're lucky- the ability to use your own intestines as badgering tools.

I have five keys,

none of which belong to me; thank you friends who let me stay at your places :).

I ALSO HAVE MY VERY FIRST TRUMPET.

I bought it two weeks ago. I unfortunately can't practice much because I do not have my own space, but I get to look at it a lot. I love it.

This is the view from Joanna's balcony. Sleeping station number 1. Small, but lovely. No lack of sunlight.

These are residencies under bridges on the Dreisam (river in Freiburg), for which I have not yet applied.
Awesome Art.
The red building on the left is the Historisches Kaufhaus (Historic Market Place). It hosts classical concerts. Nick and I attended one on Friday evening. The performers were a cellist and a piano player, the repertoire was Schumann, Grieg, Blake, and Popper, and the performance was stellar.
Actual table shots of 'Zombies.' Ike, Greta, and Anjuli, I think of you everytime I play.



Art in Denzlingen, a peripheral town of Freiburg, in which I do not have an apartment.


Regional train from Freiburg, heading to Waldkirch. I rode this train every (not every) Wednesday last year on my way to Gutach, where I taught English.

On an ending note; Congrats Dad!! My dad ran his first marathon yesterday (Sat, Oct. 1) and killed it. 31st overall, 4th in his age group. 3:37:30 time. WOW! Go dad.

Hope all is well :).

Love, smiles, and thoughts,

Ben.

Am Bodensee

Joanna and I took a three day camping trip to Konstanz, a German/Switzerland border town on the Bodensee, a Germany/Switzerland border lake.

Bikeways and Swans were big news in Belgium. They're big news in Germany too.
How I imagine the world in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Outskirts of Konstanz.



On the train back to Freiburg.

Short post!

Enjoy the week.

-Ben.