AFI fest

The last two weekends in LA were full of highlights! On Saturday we volunteered for the AFI (American Film Institute) Fest. This film festival is a young one, it has the common competitions of feature, documentary and short, but it also hosts some glamourous red carpet premieres. One of them, the "centerpiece", was the 4 hour movie CHE (2 parts à 2 hours) with Benicio del Toro playing Ernesto Guevara. It took place in the legendary 'Graumann's Chinese Theater', the central building on Hollywood Blvd. Lena and I had to usher people to their seats inside the theater. It was exciting because the cast and crew of the movie was there, of course. We did not follow the speach by Steven Soderbergh, the director, because we were too busy working. It became very difficult to fill the last spots here and there in the dark correctly when people kept arriving and the movie had started. It was all in Spanish with English subtitles. But I had seen that the documentary about Gogol Bordello (the band I'd seen at the Detour festival) screened in another theater and that Elijah Wood might be there! So Lena convinced me that this was the chance and we arrived there just in time. The film had just started, we could use our ticket vouchers we had from volunteering and - Elijah Wood sat right on the first seat when I entered the small cinema. I realized that his girlfriend sat next to him and that she was actually in the BAND (!), a dancer and kind of go-go-girl, but very witty (she was interviewed in the documentary) and beautiful. After the screening she answered questions from the crowd and when she and Elijah stood in front of the theater for a long time, chatting with friends, I just talked to him again and asked him if he remembered me from the shooting in Prague. He did, after a while. People don't understand why I am so crazy about that small guy. But I was happy and that was it.

The next weekend I volunteered for AFI once more, this time at the premiere of "Last Chance Harvey", a Hollywood comedy with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. This time it was much more relaxed work and I got to see the whole movie. Dustin Hoffman clowned about instead of giving a speech before the screening... :-) Maybe he's sick of those things.

But before that a lot of things happened... see next post!

There's still much to tell. Yesterday I was at the Walt Disney Hall. It has a breathtaking architecture, that alone is worth a visit. Leonora and I saw a very very American program, performed by the LA Philharmonics under a young conductor: Appalachian Spring by Copland followed by Britten's Violin concert starring Midori and rounded off by La noche de los Mayas by Revueltas (you don't ususally hear that in German concert halls). Short and pleasant for lovers of picturesque music.

The other night we saw a musical - for me, it's a must whenever I stay in big cities. In this case an indie rock musical called "Spring Awakening", based on Wedekinds novel "Fruehlingserwachen". I liked the music at once, it was quite progressive and young but that was fitting the topic of troubled adolescence. The singers were very young and all the more it was amazing that they gave such a dynamically differentiated performance. I still have one song stuck in my head. They displayed the sexual things rather openly, with "first time sex" halfnaked on stage and masturbation and everything. I thought that was not necessary and very unamerican, but alright.

Alien film

So that was the Hollywood Halloween!

What a Halloween Weekend! It's spinning faster and faster around me, I am meeting more and more people. I have a feeling that will go on until it apruptly comes to an end on November 13th when I have to leave this beautiful country.
We started Halloween on the 30th with a very rare event: the long promised visit to the spooky Villa in the Hollywood Hills, that was built by Charlie Chaplin and inhabited by the Rolling Stones and Marylin Manson thereafter. Patrick, the German AFI directing student - who lives an extremely bohemian life complete with a lot of women, drugs and odds like writing his screenplays in a strip club every night - threw a gigantic party around the pool and in the house. There was a band playing and the craziest costumes around. We arrived late because we had seen the screening of "Malibu Song" (directed by two very nice people that we met at the tea invitation at the Schoenbergs') at the Goethe Institut. It was a fantastic and witty documentary about the last Hippie Colony in Malibu/Topanga Canyon that has been destroyed by the State Park. The paradox was that they forced them to move and pulled down their houses in order to "make the nature available for everybody" by restoring that State Park to "its original state". This film is just so important! The people in the film were all there to do Q & A afterwards and they had sooo much to tell. A lot of artists' roots lay in that little spot of the world. Anyway, so we forced ourselves into the costumes while in the parked car and headed to that Villa where we also met our friend Timo. Much fun! But only until about 2 when the cops arrived and ended the party by sending everybody home.

The Halloween parade on Santa Monica Blvd. on the 31st was a crazy experience as well. Just beautiful to walk and watch people's creativity. The costumes ranged from Christmas tree and carrot over to giant penis and furry monster. Extremely popular where film figures like Charlie Chaplin, Queen Elizabeth, Joker in Batman, Teletubbies and other odd things. A lot of pirates, cowgirls and -boys, Playboy bunnies and many many drag queens were seen. some people didn't have a costume and used their working clothes (uaaa..), so a lot of hospital staff, soldiers and sportsmen around. The current issues in politics where also picked up, so one saw driver's licenses, Sarah Palens and McCains. I used my Burning man grape costume again, I was too lazy to make more costumes. Lena sported a fantastic self-made crow/witch costume with wings from some art project that somebody left in the office. We both wore violet and black, so it matched perfectly and every now and then we got asked to be in pictures with people, just like many of the very cool costumed people.
After the parade we were to meet a friend at a private Halloween party in Hollywood that kinda turned public because it was in a garden right next to a liquor store. It was a comedian's party, so there where a lot of funny people. We didn't meet that firend but made new friends, a Tarzan and a playing card from Alice in Wonderland. We hung out a little at the playing card's place and then tried to go to this other party but it was over by the time we got there - which was about 5.

100 F today - how crazy is this

I HAD to tell you this immediately: 37 Grad Celsius!! That is 99 F!! it is ubelievable. you walk outside and get thrown right back, you hit a wall of heat. And it is 10 am at the end of October. These Santa Anas, I hope they won't get us into trouble, causing more fires. I sit here sweating in my tank top while you at home are probably quite cold.

cultural input

I finally even learnt to say "Hi, how are you!" without the slightest interruption, that makes me be not always the one who has to greet the opposite with "Thank you, fine, and you?" because usually the other person doesn't respond to that 2nd phrase then and you feel kind of stupid afterwards.
I want to read so many more world literature books, this huge library here in the Villa (20.000 books) motivates me. But when? The weeks are to be counted and there are still sooo many things on my list to do and see. I am very glad I will get to be here on Halloween and also for the presidential elections. My god, they are only talking about that in the media. It is gonna be exciting. As for Halloween, it's one of the biggest events of the American year. What the Christmas light strings are in December (blinking, colorful, glowing, planted all over the place in every front yard), are the artificial cobwebs for October. Three weeks before the 31st people start to decorate their gardens with white thread stuff, horror masks, witch statues and the essential pumpkins, the pumpkin patches open (little fairs lines with pumpkin mazes) and the shops sport all the huge candy bags for trick-or-treat, orange colored paper decoration and cards. I have been in America once for Halloween, which was fun. I dressed up as... a pumpkin! oh my. This year I am going to be grapes. That's for sure. Actually, hey guys, I am not kidding. Picture will be posted after the 31st.

Recently at the Getty Villa (a museum for antique art, some rich dude bought all the stuff from Europe), an African-American museum guard saw the Obama badge on my bag and asked "Is that Obama? That is so sweet. Thank you!" But he didn't know I was not American... The Getty Villa by the way seems awkward because everything looks new and too neat, no charme to that place at all. But then a bunch of porno pictures. Yes, it's funny how the Americans don't care - as long as it's antique art. All these amphores with Dionysos having a hard-on... INteresting.

And the Feuchtwanger Memorial library is equally interesting when it comes to that. There are some original sketches of Heinrich Mann, very obscene, but very. We could actually flick through his very sketchbook. And we could touch and look at Brechts "Kriegstagebuch", the original photographic one. And there are also books from the middle ages that Feuchtwanger collected. I found all those funny misspellings in the titles of the pages. The book is such an early work, that it is not even fully "printed", it is a so-called Incunabel from before 1500.

The bouncer

Ok here comes the cultural explorer: As easygoing as everything seems here in America and open and "not a problem" - some things drive me up the wall. Once more I experienced the discriminating processes that go on in front of clubs... We started the evening around 7 at the Roosevelt hotel. On the rooftop with pool there was the opening reception of the Media Festival "Hollywould" going on. We somehow managed not to pay the $25 and still drank wine and ate for free. (The valet parking was already $12.) We looked at the projections that appeared on the surface of the pool and on the baloons that swam in there and met a couple of interesting and hollywoodesc characters. Fotographers, filmmakers and a real estate woman called Suzanna who was like straight out of "American Beauty". We got a hint to go to the "Kress" instead of the Knitting factory. There would be a CD release party going on with some celebrities. In the Knitting factory there was indeed not so much going on, which was sad because Christine, a former Villa fellow, was DJing. So we went to the Kress and the usual thing started at the door. Lot's of very important looking guys in black suits with headsets and walky-talkies hanging around the fenced entrance area, enjoying their power, very self-conscious. You stand there in line, not really knowing what you are waiting for because inside the club is empty. Lot's of dudes waiting to get in and from time to time some people arriving and just let in past the socalled "bouncers" (Türsteher). There is no rule, it's totally arbitrary who they let past. You either have to know one of them, or you have to be on the guest list (means you know one of the person's who throw that night's party inside) or you pretend to be on the guest list or you are just young and good-looking, preferably a girl. The bouncer chooses who he likes and "gets them in". They make a big deal of it. Anyway, we stood there for a second time and finally two guys said they knew a friend of the bouncer. But they needed us to get in because they won't let a group of only guys in. With Lena walking ahead very self-assured and smiling at the big doormen, we did not have too much of a problem to even get hold of the sought-after wrist-band that entitled us to step into the VIP area three floors up. What an intimidating experience. We did not so much like the crowd up there - probably some B class prominent people, TV show stars, band members and the like, from their looks, but.. pew.. we danced 3-4 songs in the basement club (black, R&B, HipHop), with all the chicks around in dresses that hardly covered their boobs and their bums and a large African-American crowd. Well, why not try this for a night.

German Film

Oh, and I forgot to say the rest of the German Film Currents festival was so wonderful! The last day I went to the Filmfrühstück in the Goethe Institute with Christine. We met nice people among which were two Berlin directors. I had a very good conversation with one, Dennis Gansel, finally someone who really knows the film scene and with whom I could share my opinions about the young actors' scene in Germany. He likes to work with a lot of the actors my age that I find terrific. Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Max Mauff and others. He is the director of DIE WELLE which was in German movie theaters recently and of NAPOLA which I had seen and liked. I was surprised because he seemed so young. The other director Max Plettau was also very nice. That evening I went to the screening of the WELLE, but unfortunately I missed Max's film. After the screening we had a lot of fun at a karaoke pub, also because the German actress Rosalie Thomas, who was with us, was in such a good mood!

Gogol Bordello and The Mars Volta

Watching the sunset on Ocean Avenue, in the small park on the top of the cliffs that separate Santa Monica from the ocean and the Pacific Coast highway... that just opens your soul and makes you think: life is so beautiful. The same emotion came when I saw the city of Los Angeles from above in the night, standing at a scenic view point on Mulholland Drive (that is closed at night, actually - but we climbed the fence)... Or being at the top of our road - Paseo Miramar - during dusk, also overseeing the whole city plus the other direction - Malibu. It's similar to the feeling you have when you lie on your board and ride in front of a wave towards the beach and you just see the world speeding by on either side. Or inhaling the eucalyptus scent when you go running through the canyon. Or standing in front of a stage and dancing to very good live music. I had this happen on Saturday night. I went to the "Detour" LA downtown music festival. 4 stages around the town hall of Los Angeles. A very young and very individual crowd, very stylish and/or dressed up, some wore outfits - man what a people watching opportunity!!
I saw great new bands, music that I have to research and get onto my brandnew ipod (that came out two weeks ago - but I have never possessed an mp3 player before, so I thought now or never) and two awesome headliners: The after dark concerts with the biggest crowds where Gogol Bordello (gypsy punk) and The Mars Volta (experimental rock, very 70s, very crazy). I was in the middle of the crowd and loved it. Eugene Hutz, the singer of Gogol Bordello is a real show off and he just made the show. The two Go-go(l)-Girls did stage diving and kept on dancing on their big drum over the heads of the crowd!! I spotted Elijah Wood on the backstage side of the open air stage when I climbed a wall on the side of the crowd, actually climbing over the fence to the backstage area. I wasn't surprised because the singer was in Elijah Wood's film "Everything is illuminated", at the set of which I met Elijah, too. But I was thrilled because .. well .. he is my favourite actor, believe it or not, and such a great person. I did not get to speak to him this time, though.
The Mars Volta, uhm.., the first half hour it was QUITE interesting. They improvised and it was just thick noise more or less. When I was about to leave to meet Lena at the "LA Burning Man Afterparty", they started to play their songs that everybody knows. So I stayed a little longer and upset Josh, someone at whose garage I was able to park my car at noon, very kind of him and lucky for me, just three blocks from the event. In between I had lost my camera and was panically looking for it in the crowd and on the ground when someone tapped at my shoulder and asked me what I was looking for - he had found it. How lucky is that?! The guy who helped me searching invited Lena and me to a nice bar in downtown to have another beer or two after the festival. They played "99 Luftballons", in German, and Lena and I just danced and decided we love the place and will be back some other night.

Some nice music we also heard the other night in the Roxy. The friend of a friend's album release concert was going on and we were invited. The band was called "Volumen Zero", actually a little paradox for a good band, but the music was great and the singer worth looking at :-). It was mostly Spanish rock songs, but often very melodic. Before that we had been to a gallery opening of one of Lena's acquaintances where we met a friendly and outgoing Polish actress who invited us to her home on Hermosa Beach. wow.

And I wanted to write something about how I got used to the American rules of driving. By now I do pay attention at the intersections where all 4 sides have a stop sign and whoever arrives first, drives first, and second and so on. It is a good solution indeed. And I love just turning right on every red traffic light if the street's clear. I hope I won't forget not to when I'm back in Germany. And I remember to collect quarters for the Parkuhren so you can always get rid of your car somewhere for 15 minutes or for 2 hours, whichever you just need.

Boogie boarding

This picture is old, but during the day we have 37° C, that is 98° F, for a 2nd of October that is pretty amazing... Beach time!

Hot Chip

So that's when we went to a concert of Hot Chip (great great music!) in West Hollywood. I plan more music events. Saturday I want to go do an LA downtown music festival with The Mars Volta being the headliner. I am excited!
On the picture you see Paul (writer), Lena (intern), Nico (writer) and Christine (film producer)

Venice

Some images of Venice, my favourite part of LA

Paradise in the Palisades

Me sitting in my favourite spot at the Villa Aurora. (If you can see me ;-) Some people say it's paradise...

Hollywood experiences, take 3

Last Saturday we thought we'd go big and drove to the sunset strip in a party of six with two cars. We accidentally left them in the most expensive garage at the place (we found out about the $48 per car the day after) and took 2 taxis back so we all could party. But the taxis cost over $70 each. Yak! Like the other night that Lena and me went to the "Standard" roof top, one of the fanciest places downtown, we were not able to get into every club we wanted (guest list, private party, too expensive...), so we settled to have a few tacos at a nice Mexican place and then bought some beer at the "liquor locker" (I love the name!). After the "Marmot", a rich people's hangout, looking for a place to dance at we walked all the way down to the Whiskey-a-go-go and the Roxy, both of which hosted a rock concert with a crowd in black and teased hair. So we went back to our Viper Room and were surprised by a nice Reggae-Rock concert by "New Kingdom". Good dance music, too. Like always, curfew at 2 and now alternative afterwards, so we went to the Villa and kept on partying in Lion's study.

The Sunday we had our own good bye fellows party in the garden of the Villa. The three artist fellows are leaving this weekend. We had invited some friends and acquaintances of the theirs. It was a big success, the home made burgers as well as Jan's art exhibition and most of all the interesting mixture of people. The discussions that came up were so exciting! We had a lot of film people once more. I was so happy my cousin from Santa Barbara and Julia could make it plus the newly weds! Even two office colleagues could come.

The "German Film Currents" festival started in Santa Monica and for the opening we saw "Im Winter ein Jahr" by Caroline Link, introduced by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck who has settled down well in Hollywood as he said. Christine and I will go there again today to watch "Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex", I am quite eager to see it and to see how many Oscar winners there are this time (Last time: three).

Hollywood experiences, take 2

I cannot keep up, so much is there that I have seen and done since Burning Man! Even more amazing considering I was sick for a whole week (probably first stage of a bronchitis, I let me talk into taking antibiotics and then got better).
+++ Burning man post has been continued +++

Last Friday we tried Annies tip of eating Hamburgers at "Father's Office (FO...)" in Culver City. Good indeed! On Saturday Jan and I cruised through Venice and went to explore the houses on the canals. That area is where the name comes from - somebody tried to rebuild the flair of Venice. Once a rundown quarter you don't want to know how expensive these houses are now. But they look soooo gorgeous, so individual. We had afternoon meal at our beloved Novel Cafe, THE hang out place for the Villa residents in South Santa Monica. Then we were late for some gallery visits in Culver City but met Paul and John, a local, to attend some gallery openings in Beverly Hills in the evening. The crowd was just as interesting to look at as the pictures were. (I mean the pictures were really good, some of them.) Beverly Hillians look so polished, almost photoshop-worked-over... Clearly a different kind of inhabitants as in Venice. There was the personal fitness trainer next to the pianist next to the bodyguard next to the movie actor. In fact, a lot of people you get to meet are in the film business. On the block party the weekend before last we met a stuntman who "does mainly car crashes", as he stated, in major studio productions. He did Transformers, Angels and Demons and now today Eagle Eye premiered in Hollywood, on which he worked lately (will certainly make its way to Germany, looks big). We saw Ben Stiller at the gallery opening. That guy is tiny! His girlfriend is really much taller.
On Sunday we spent 5 hours in the LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We saw art from ancient Egypt through antique, middle ages, renaissance, baroque, romanticism, ex- and impressionism, cubism, surrealism and contemporary art as well as photography. That was why we took so long. Still, we have only seen half of the works in the museum! Lena and Nico were up in San Francisco for the weekend. I would have gone, but I was still sick when they left on Thursday. Too bad.
Monday I worked very hard on finding a solution for our rat problem (we have rats in the kitchen, they are so cute ( - just kidding)) and our mold problem in the basement. Pour Paul has to live there. I was proud to announce the prompt beginning of the work today and tomorrow. The first rat has been trapped and buried already today. Poor thing.

Yesterday night I went to the Topanga State Parc (the wilderness starts at the end of our road, so it's just a 7 min. walk) to see the sunset. It was just overwhelming. With the full moon so big and red and the view over LA and the ocean from up there... I will have to go there more often! Today we drove the Villa's van with a large party (felt like a field trip) to Santa Paula to see a photo exhibition of David Bacon about migrant farm workers in rural California. The Villa's writer in exile Xu Xing from China is planning a documentary that compares Chinese farm worker's living conditions to those here in California. (And I am his assistant in the project, yeaah!) Farm workers are all Mexican. So the speeches were all in Spanish as the majority of the people were Spanish speaking. It was very interesting to talk to the photographer and also the Mexican food was delicious and the music so nice.
I got so American! I start saying things like: "Oh, aaabsolllutely!!" or "Are you seeerious??".

! Practice random acts of silliness !

Burning, fucking burning. I was at the hottest, coolest, craziest, most border-crossing event in the world. And I was curious for years since Toby was crazy about it ever since he went for the first time. Sadly he and Jade couldn't go this year. I didn't find anybody to go with instead and then it turned out I would be working in LA at the time anyway.



So I burried the thought... Until I mentioned to Jan how I would love to experience it. That was on the weekend it started. He said he had been dying to go, too, but hadn't found anyone. He said: LET'S GO! and wrote a concept for an art installation overnight which would have to include me singing and dancing, in order to get me off work for the whole week! I believed that would never work. but it did. We had one day of preparation (usually one prepares for a year, you pimp your car to be an art car, get a tent and camp group together, food, gifts, booze, drugs, music, special crazy equipment and whatnot). We rented a car, bought a camera, borrowed a tent and bombed down (up) to Nevada in 14 hours. We didn't find the friends of-a-friend-camp we were supposed to but we made a ton of new friends which is the easiest thing there.

BURNING MAN is a huge art exhibition in the middle of nowhere and at the same time a freaky rave and at the same time a community based city in the desert. 50.000 people gather to celebrate freedom from every convention for one week and after that burn the art (the main event is the burning of the central "man" in the middle of the "playa"), then they pack tents and everything including their grey water to leave the place without a trace. It's an awesome idea and that is why people love it and it grows every year. Black Rock City is circular, so that the street names are the hours, you don't need to remember much that way. It is 7 miles across, lots of room for everybody.
You just leave your camp whenever you feel like it, day or night, and do whatever you want, basically: go dancing (good PsyTrance and wellknown DJs on three dance floors), have drinks at one of the numerous bars for free (since the living culture says: give away to others what you bring, share everything), get into crazy conversations with random people, marvel the spectacularly creative cars and domes and costumes (you will stand out if you go out in normal clothes! At least bikini required. you can also go naked or naked with a corset or a wig or you can paint your whole body, you can decorate your bike with lights for the night or just hang out in one of the lounges with nice music, reggae or Elvis songs or Shpongle or almost anything. Anything that you can imagine and that you cannot imagine is there.
One great thing for example was the "pimped potty": one of the portapotties (DixieKlo) was decorated with picture frames, made nice with candles, incenses, a fluffy toilet lid and a radio! (See picture above)...



The shooting worked out really well, too. The first day we developed more ideas and came up with a splitting of the project into three separate ones. So the second day we shot the first installation: I walked in the desert towards the camera in a ballroom dress, drawing a line in the ground with a long bamboo stick, a scarf blowing in the wind. You have some close-ups of the stick cutting the earth and then I walk away into the distance again with the mountain panorama in the background. The second installation is the "Station to Station" one. I walk, dance, climb, cartwheel and run into doors and huts and other art installations in the middle of the desert, just to come out of others, as if I would have traveled underground. This one will have a crazy soundtrack and will be postproducted and processed heavily. The third one involves me singing a song from the musical FAME ("They know how to do it in LA") about a drug addicted girl who broke down trying to live her dreams, while I walk through a sand storm at Burning Man. I can't wait what Jan will make out of this material!

Hollywood experiences, take 1 (Klappe die erste)

Ok the beach was better than on the weekend: very empty, big waves to ride and to dive through. Only really sad thing was that I lost my Indian anclet. It was so pretty. Stupid giant wave!
We helped Jan find a hat in the hat shop on the Venice promenade. The street is flanked by little vendours who sit on the lawn behind their art stuff, smoking weed with friends and just enjoying the nice atmosphere like everybody does along the beach! Some drum away into trance or just chill out. Right behind that promenade is the apartment of Jim, a Hollywood screen writer that the other Villa residents met on the beach some other day. We met him by chance and he invited us over for dinner. He had some original prints of Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and other famous photographers on the walls. We had expensive salmon and good wine and a great conversation about the arts in Europe and America. It was interesting to hear of his experience in film business. He has sold numerous scripts to Disney, non of which has actually been produced in the end. That is the way it works. He had had one big blockbuster success, having written the script for "John Q" by Nick Cassavetes, in German cinemas it was called "Q", a family drama/thriller with Denzel Washintgon for New Line Cinema. On Tuesday we met up with Timo, a German directing student in Hollywood. In five we ended up visiting another guy at a strip club, the oldest strip club in Hollywood, he said. Quite an interesting experience for Lena and me who weren't exactly very strip club experienced. Actually the girls were very bendy and flew around that pole rather than danced. It seems to be a real art and discipline which has to be exercised a lot in order to learn the cool moves.
On Saturday we hope that the barbecue is going to happen that we were casually invited to. The same guy lives in a horror rocky house. It was home to the Rolling Stones befor Marilyn Manson moved in. Now it is a film student community living place. It sounds like adventure! But if people say something is gonna happen, it doesn't necessarily happen, it depends on so many things..

are we really gettin' into it? (Hollywood)

Lena and I have enormous luck. We have come just in the right time. For one the weather is the best in our 3 months. It is going to stay beach weather in September and beginning of October! Second, we have such awesome artists around is in the Villa. Jan is a filmmaker (his animation short film "Our man in Nirvana", check it out at OurManInNirvana.com) has won numerous prizes all over the world. He is working on another film, but more than that he has taken to drawing recently and produces at least one cool and creative picture per day. You never know if you don't end up being in his artwork - one might be drawn into a picture if one is lying somewhere not moving for a while. Nico is a writer, he did some very successful lyrical stuff with which he goes on reading tours around Germany. Now, he researches for a "memory project" and writes some prosa. His new book "Fallstreifen"comes out on Friday! Paul is also a young writer, his book "Milch Holz Katzen" with (very short) short stories has been successful and he is currently in Mexico doing research for his new book.
I have to continue another day, we have to go to the beach now!! or the sun will be gone. Then I will tell you about the Hollywood we are experiencing - script writers' apartments, Barbecue at the Rolling Stones' house, strip club visits on the Sunset Strip... that sort of thing.

The Viper Room

Today we will check out the waves at Venice beach again. Bougie boarding is much fun, more than I thought! It's not quite surfing, but standing on the board rather than lying, is not to be learned within a few days. The first weekend in the Villa I have seen and experienced so much already! It is definitely going to be a great time. Friday night we went to Viper Room on the Sunset strip. This rather inconspicuous looking small club is famous for having been partially owned by Johnny Depp for a while and for the sad incidence of River Phoenix dying in front of it on the pavement in 1993 after having had an overdose of heroin and cocaine. River Phoenix was one of my favourite actors and I and many others are really sad that he hasn't lived to shoot many more excellent movies, one of which was Interview with the vampire.
The night we were there was announced as Peep Show night, but the two stripping girls didn't top it really. The two crazy rock bands were far better. The music of the 'Allnighters' is actually to be recommended. Had never heard of that band before, which the host (had something of the Studio 54 hosts in NY's 70s) constantly announced as favorite band of some Guns'n'Roses member. they didn't have a singer but real rock band -like guitar players, long hear or beard and very capable.

The Golden (Se)villa by the sea

I fell in love with the place at first sight! I'm in exquisite company there - Thomas Mann is said to have done so, too, and he is quoted at any possible occasion. And I have found my favourite spot in the Villa Aurora on the second day already. I love to sit outside on the wide stone balustrade on the top of the stairs leading down into the garden. I look at the pretty Andalusian style facade to my left and right side, and straight I have the perfect view: flowers, palm and eucalyptus trees frame the awesome panorama with the sea and beach looking down the hill of the close-to-the-coast part of Pacific Palisades. The beach I see is not any beach, it is Santa Monica Beach becoming Venice Beach on the far end. I learned yesterday that Venice is actually the cooler and better beach and not at all snobby as might be suggested by the name. The main street (the strip) is my kind of area: colorful and very individual looking little shops and bars as opposed to huge stores and chain markets. 10 years ago Venice was a run down area marked by junkies and poverty. Whereas Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades are populated with the movie stars and rich. In "our" supermarket (down our street you hit Sunset Boulevard and there it is, the VONS on the corner) you can conduct sociological studies. Every second girl is a Paris Hilton look-alike. I haven't yet met any Venice Beach surfer dude, but we have plenty of time...;-)

We, that is Lena and me. Lena is my fellow intern and she was a big surprise and still is every day! Lena seems to be my soulmate. She is also from Hamburg, actually lives in my part of the city as well, she studies at the Musikhoschule (the same subject I studied: performing arts management) where I was going very often lately to sing with Christoph, she works for the Laeiszhalle/HamburgMusik with the same colleagues that I have worked with for 3 years during my university years. She shares my food taste, wears a similar style of clothes (we have a set of pants and shirt exactly the same!), she is outgoing, very very pretty and fun to have around. And why on earth did I have to go to Los Angeles to meet such a great person? I am just so happy that we get to go back the same time and will be able to stay friends actively!

Today it's hotter than yesterday. In general the climate and weather is amazing! I am sure that is one reason why some German Emigrés chose to stay here rather than go back. Like Billy Wilder for example. The Villa used to be a meeting place for the intellectuals and artists that were persecuted by the Nazis. Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger, whose place this is, established a German 'Salon' like the ones in the early 20th century, where writers, filmmakers, painters and philosophers gathered to discuss politics and art. Marta Feuchtwanger died only in 1987. So every bit of furniture and the large collection of Lions books have been left exactly were they always have been. The Villa Aurora foundation bought the house in 1995 and established a scholarship program. That way the will of the Feuchtwangers could be carried out to keep this place alive as an inspiring place for young artists to live and work.

This means for Lena and me who help in the office, running the place, that we live in a museum on the one hand and in a lively artists' community on the other hand. It is an honor and one of the most exciting and artistically interesting things I have ever done. It is quite a feeling, sitting on the carpet in the living room watching Jan's fantastic and overly creative short animation film on the big screen at night, sipping a glass of wine together with the other artists, maybe sitting in the same spot where Hanns Eisler discussed with Kurt Weill or where Bertholt Brecht argued with Heinrich Mann or Aldous Huxley, Arnold Schönberg, and Thomas Mann were deep in conversation on one evening in the past.

beer cans and dementia

The Yosemite Hiking trip was unbelievably beautiful and rewarding. The group experience was so much fun. It was tough, though. 30 miles in 3 days, 7000 feet down into Tuolumne River Canyon and slowly back up again. So it was serious backpacking, climbing and walking - 6 hours a day average. But the nature we were able to see was - I can't put this in words, it was too huge and too beautiful. We started into this adventure in a group of eight. Thanks to Erin, the "general", everything was so well organized, that we didn't have to worry about anything. She also saved us from starving with trail mix during the breaks. Most of us did not know the others before the trip. At the end we got out of the canyon as good friends, laughing at our insider jokes that came up over and over again. Somebody was "demented" every ten minutes because he had done something less thoughtful. Just because the lady in the small shop near the entrance to Yosemite park told us horror stories of bears having eaten goats nearby recently and of an old lady she had met and who was later found dead under a manzanita bush because she had gotten lost hiking off on her own. Well, the lady was very old, but she had hiked for her whole life... We faced the danger of getting demented like her and "staying behind under manzanita bushes". Thank god nothing ever happened to us, we never even saw a bear on the hike. We did see one though, on the last morning, crawling out our tents on the backpacker's campsite after a really cold and uncomfy last night. The bear was small and blonde (!), not the bear I'd have liked to spot.. but - a bear. We have seen a bear. Obviously we had been extra cautious throughout the journey, storing every crumb of leftovers and all the deodorants and toothbrushes in the so called bear cans. I accidentally referred to them as beer cans several times, which always prompted the excited question "WHERE?!! I want some!"

One hour into the hike on the first day we discovered that we had forgotten two of the most important things: the wilderness permits that we had bought to be able to be out there and the sun screen that was supposed to be group shared. I sponged off some other hikers or park rangers we met for some so I was ok with my sun allergy. I got pretty tanned without sun screen on arms and legs. I wasn't as bad off as Aroon who forgot to bring underwear... :-) But even that was ok, he cleaned the boxers every day in the river anyway, because he had also forgotten to bring a swim suit!
The second day we had so much fun at the natural water slides and the gorgious green water pools in the river that we got on the trail too late and had to climb a mountain top in the heat of the day. Not so funny.
On the last day we reached several water falls, each one even higher than the others and met some mules on the way up - incredible how these animals walk those rocky, steep paths. Our meals were 'menues', designed by our experienced hiker John and consisting of al lot of dried food like dehidrated veggies, egg powder, milk powder, pan cake powder and noodles. We cooked the powders up with pumped water from the river. The dessert was never missing and always delicious. Sometimes it was little, the food, so that we jumped at ice-cream, chips and beer as soon as we got out the canyon and to the valley store. We were dirty after three days without a shower, but highly satisfied with our achievement and the many precious experiences and good times we had round the camp fire.

I came to SF the day before we left. Because Aroon had taken the day off work we were able to spend some hours downtown SF together. We went to the Golden Gate Park and visited the tea gardens. We took a serious of symmetry pictures. Just because. I think we got the idea because we were dressed the same. Here are two of these:

Back in Saaaan Fraaaan Ciscoooooo! There was the same conductor guy on the Caltrain today with that hilarious voice! I have missed him. Today Aroon and I explored the last bit I didn't get round to of the things I had planned to see last time: Golden Gate Park. It's huge and we went to see the Tea Gardens with all these neat bonsai trees, took a couple of symmetric pictures for the fun of it :-) and had a green tea served by Japanese girls looking like Geishas. We went to visit the fairly new De Yong Museum right next to it - worth it just for the architecture: Herzog & De Meuron created it, the same that are building the new Hamburg landmark, the Elbphilharmonie. Up the tower we had a great city view despite the marine layer. Want to come back definitely, for the Chihuly exhibition, an Italian glass sculpturor. We didn't have time for that today. And this is BECAUSE... we are leaving for Yosemite park tonight! I've been invited to join Aroon and 6 friends on a r\three day hiking trip. I am so excited about it! And glad I have got my foot and shoe problem solved. As a matter of fact my right leg is longer than my left and that was the cause of all the muscle aches I've been suffering for a year now. I found this out last week with a great physiotherapist in SB. Now I will wear a lift in the left hiking shoe.

Ok, I use the time to keep up on what we did in SF the other week... where did I leave off? In the middle of the week. Wednesday I met a friend from my time in Italy. Aaron works in the financial district of San Francisco now. His family lives here. The world is so small - he also went to UCSB but I never got a chance to visit my cousin in SB while he was still there. It was great to exchange what we've been up to over the last years and what we plan for the future.
Going to Alcatraz is not so easy. I didn't book in advance so I bought a Bay Cruise ticket for the next day. The Bay Cruise was nice but freezing cold! The Golden Gate Bridge from below was a new impression for me as well as getting so close to Alcatraz. Dude, it's falling to pieces, so old and shabby. They circled around the island three times just to fit all the exciting escape stories in the time, also featuring that famous one in 1962 about which nobody can tell if the people did actually survive and manage to hide to the end of their lives. Because their bodies have never been found. They made several movies out of that one: The Rock with Sean Connery as well as Escape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood.

Viva la fiesta!

Wow, the fiesta - Santa Barbarian Spanish Heritage Days - was nice! It is still going on, the whole weekend, but I did see a lot. Thursday night Amy, Josh and I (I met Josh in Julias painting class) went to one of the spots where they have the fair celebrations going on: stands with Mexican food and drinks (I LOVE the Horchata, made with aroz y canela and I also ate my first Tamale - how delicious! It's corn pudding with meat inside, wrapped in a corn leaf.) Why are those people fenced in? I wondered. Oh, because that's where they sell beer. To get into the fence - it's the most crowded area - you gotta show your ID. Ok, then... let's go and have a beer, shall we? Josh looks at me like uuhm...no... because one I don't like it too much and two it's illegal. Oh, so under 21, huh? well. +++ how good that the puppy is chewing on her bone for a while +++ Ok, so we did some other fun stuff instead. the band was great, I even got to dance chacha, I got egged (they crack an egg filled with confetti) and went up a giant rubbery air filled shark to slide down out of its mouth. Yesterday we saw the Spanish Heritage parade with old spanish costumes, beautiful flamenco dressed women, sombrero men on horses and floats covered in flowers and with musical groups and marines dressed in white. That's when you squillo'd me, Daniel Gonzalez from Spain!! What a coincidence and thanks, just couldn't squillo back from here. The high school marching bands contributed music, too - only the Hispanic band members where in the parade, though. Yesterday night I went to the Courthouse (most beautiful building in Santa Barbara!) and saw the public dancing and singing performances on stage. The park was crowded and the dances were of a high level! They even had crossings between flamenco and Hip Hop, very interesting for me. After that we checked out the Wild Cat Club - my second clubbing night in SB. After the bachelorette night of Jade (Junggesellinnenabschied) on which we went to the Q's club. The barmen in the Wild Cat were drunk already so that guy just poured me a triple shot instead of one. It was strange stuff, ananas and chili flavoured Tequila. I said oh well it's expensive anyway, I won't complain! But the punishment was to come... I had this monster hangover today, it really sucked.

Silicon Valley and Stanford

The Sunday we went on a bike trip to Palo Alto and visited the donkey who was apparently the model for the donkey in Shrek. The Pixar headquarters are near by - I say, Silicon Valley... We went to dine in "the best south Indian food restaurant" in the area. Iddly and Dosa really were delicious. I felt just a little odd cause I was actually the only non-indian person in the whole place! And I was there with 5 other Indians.

The next day I went to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition in the San Francisco MOMA. There was also another one, an exhibition about Lee Miller, a really interesting woman with more than one career in her life. She was beautiful, changed from model to photographer to war journalist to cook. I was in Stanford on Tuesday - the grounds and building live up to what the name suggests. It's worth a visit. I spent lots of time in the bookstore, and in the philosophy department, because I met up with a friend from my years in Lueneburg and his wife. I used to be Donovans 'buddy" on the exchange program. His kid Dyllan was too cute. We ran around the campus following his every step.