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.