Shish Kabob

Today was cloudy and at night it rained.
I had to work at 11, but I went there at 12.
It was a boring day at work. Me and my boss watched "The Empire Strikes Back"(1980) while he smoked weed and I chopped sweet potatoes and tofu before the store opened.
I got a chance to listen to the new CBC3 podcast later in the day while I was working alone.
The rest of the day was slow and I finished work around 5.
I got home and had a shower.
I ate zucchini and green beans and mushrooms for dinner and micro-waved the left-over coffee from my breakfast.
I watched the final episodes of the third season of "Battlestar Galactica".
After that I watched "The Player" (1992) by Robert Altman. About half way through the movie I left the apartment and walked to the corner store. I bought a pack of chocolate chip cookies and a Coke. "The Player" was good - talk about a movie about movies. 'Post-modern' gets thrown around a lot, but if the shoe fits, wear it.
Tim Robbins was good in it and I haven't seen a movie with him for a while. It was raining really heavy when the movie finished.
I checked out Daytrotter and then the illustrator Brendan Kiefer's website. I listened to a bit of David Bazan.
I wrote some more of my short story "Home".
I finished the pack of chocolate chip cookies;
These are pictures of an old chair and old fridges;

Schism

Today was sunny, and a bit windy.
My two day classes were canceled, the professor just didn't show up.
Which was great because it gave me a chance to ride my bike around the city. I finally saw the Berlin wall. I stopped at a cafe in Kreuzberg. I had a coffee and some potato soup. It was a bit expensive for Kreuzberg, but pretty great. The people at the other table had an unchained dog that lunged out (violently!) at bikers as they passed. Idiots; the people with the unchained dog, not the bikers.
My iTunes isn't working, but I really wanted to listen to the new John Safran podcast. I had to listen with VLC Player.
I had to work at 6:30. It wasn't boring or exciting. Near the end of the night a group of guys and one girl came in. They said that they were a band; the girl was really cute/pretty and said that she had just been in Vancouver a few weeks ago and had her first poutine. I laughed and chatted a bit. She and her friends were gone when I went outside for a break. I will never see her again.
I listened to Vampire Weekend and watched their 'new' video.
This is a picture of a abandoned hospital room;

Chisel

Yesterday was sunny but not hot.
I woke up around 10 o'clock and had cornflakes and an espresso that my room mate Neele had made. She has just arrived back from...somewhere, and a different room mate, Jana, is leaving for...somewhere. I have to move to a different bedroom, which is bigger, so I'm not not liking it.
I took the subway to near KaDaWe and bought a new American Apparel t shirt; it's gray and half cotton - half polyester, so it is thinner and cooler for summer.
I went back home and ate left over jambalaya and watched "The Muppet Movie" (1979). I did not like it. It's really hard to sit through Kermit the frog and Fozzy Bear singing together. And then to sit through Miss Piggy sing. It's a musical comedy with cartoon voices. Steve Martin is in it briefly, and his character is pretty funny.
I had to work at 5 and it wasn't very busy. I talked to Genevieve about movies because she has a Master's Degree in film studies (and she works at a pizzeria). She said that she liked movies with a meaning and when I said that I didn't like "Be Kind, Rewind" (2008) by Michel Gondry, she said it was because I watched too many American movies. She also said she only really was interested in 'European' cinema. Despite all that, I like Genevieve.
After work I walked home and read a bit of "The Blindfold", by Siri Hustvedt. So far, not so good.
Then I went to Privatclub to see a DJ that my boss said he would put me on the guestlist for. I wasn't though, and had to pay, and the venue was empty except for my drunk boss and a few (4, 5?) people dancing. A girl from one of my classes, Claudia, was there and I talked to her for a bit in this smoking room that reminded me of Halloween. I got home around 3.

This is a picture of the canal in Kreuzberg where I live;

Whistle

Today was sunny and cloudy.
I woke up around 9 o'clock and didn't go to my first class. I read "Twelfth Night" by Shakespeare instead. My American City novel class is re-scheduled for tomorrow so I went out for lunch with Eli and J.C. after my Shakespeare class. We went to a restaurant called Buddha and the food was OK but expensive for what it was.
I bought two beer on the way home and then listened to an old CBC3 podcast, one from like, September 2005. I drank a couple of glasses of water and cleaned some dishes.
I went over to J.C.'s house for dinner around 7 o'clock.
I watched the first half of the soccer game.
Then I listened to this guy Lauren talk about Tibet, (and surprisingly the Uyghurs) for about 45 minutes. The night slipped into comparing "Toy Story" (1995) to Markism.
This is a picture of the contents of my pocket;

Whisper

Today was sunny.
I woke up around 1:30 and I fell when I was taking a shower.
I had cornflakes and oranges and kiwi and banana for breakfast. I put my orange and kiwi in the fridge last night, and they tasted way better cold.
I went to the Berliner Gallery near my house. There was a new temporary exhibit with photography. There was a big oil painting by Thomas Lange that I really liked and another painting by Trak Wendisch that I also liked.
I was there for maybe an hour and a bit and then walked home and made some rice with tomatoes and carrots and red peppers.
I watched "The Long Goodbye"(1973) by Robert Altman. It was pretty great. I really like Elliot Gould. I'm going to digest the film a bit more and watch it again. It reminded me a bit of those Fletch movies that Chevy Chase did.
I walked over to Kottbusser Tor and ate a falafel and then walked back home.
Then I watched "The Lady from Shanghai" (1947). It was good too. Orson Welles had an Irish accent, that I found uncomfortable, and I normally really enjoy the sound of his voice. I watched "Manhattan Murder Mystery" the other day, and it has a lot of "The Lady from Shanghai" featured in it. That was interesting too.
This is an old truck in Ireland;

Histogram

Today was cloudy and then a bit sunny.
I slept in until about 10 o'clock. I had coffee and corn flakes and then read the fourth book of "Paradise Lost" by John Milton.
I kept getting distracted by the internet.
Around 1 o'clock I left my house and went to work to drop off a DVD that my boss lent me. It was the first four episodes of "Battlestar Galactica" from the 1970's. I've been watching the new series that started in 2003, and I think I like it better. After that I stopped at a bakery and had a spinach pastry and an iced tea. Then I had two classes and hung out with Kat after the second class. Then I went home and listened to the new podcast with John Safran from Triple J.

This is a picture of a shoe in a window in an abandoned hospital;

Thistle

Today was hot.
I woke up around 8 and came very close to not going to class. I did though, I knew if I went back to sleep I would miss the majority of the day, and I wanted to go to a gallery and drop-off some film.
A letter from my friend Phil arrived from New Zealand and I read it on the subway towards class.
Class was hot and boring.
After class I went to C/O, a gallery that used to be a post office (hence 'C/O' (Care Of:). It was a photography exhibit and I liked some of it and disliked some of it.
There was some excerpts from Jacob Holdt photographs across America in the 70's. He hitchhiked around and took pictures of Black people, acts of violence, transvestites, prostitutes; really just poverty, violence and the hate that was in the US then in specific areas. There was also some great stuff by Alex Soth comparing the fashion of Paris to that of Minnesota. The contrast was pretty easily graspable even if the concept seems a little thin. There was also some pictures I didn't like of 'oppressed' Muslim women in India and also Bulgaria. I really felt like I had already seen these photographs a million times and these photographers were trying to contribute but were really just leeching on to a topic and reproducing images we have all seen elsewhere before.
Last night I started watching "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1994) by Woody Allen, and finished it after I got home from the gallery. It's a pretty good movie. I think the characteristics that distinguishes it from other 'murder mystery' movies would be lost on the audience.
Then I rode my roommate's bike to Nuekolln. I dropped-off the film and bought a bag and then rode around until I found Search & Destroy where I bought some Shoe Goo for my Lakais. They gave me a DVD for free, which was pretty nice. I really like that store and I think I might buy a t shirt from there when I get paid on the 15th.
When I got home I watched some of the DVD and listened to the new CBC3 podcast. This band from Newfoundland, Hey Rosetta! are so good.
I met up with Randi, Joe and Lina and then we met up with Mats and watched the soccer game between Sweden and Greece. It was kind of boring to watch and then we met up with Mark from work. He took us to the roof of his apartment building which was really cool and had a great view and benches and flowers and tables. Then we went to a bar called Roses and me and Randi left before anyone else. We got falafel on the way home.
This is the program from the gallery;

This

If today was Saturday from two weeks ago I would say things like ;
Today was sunny.
I had to start work at 10, and woke up at 9:45.
I didn't have breakfast and rode my subletter's bike to work.
Work was kind of long and busy.
After work I went home and showered and then rode my bike to go see Black Mountain.
They played at a cool venue that I've been to before.
I asked the opening band what their name was between one of their songs and then after the girl next to me said that she was thinking the same thing. Her name was Grace and she was Calgary and we ended up talking in between songs and then hung out during the break before Black Mountain played.
We hung out after and tried to go for ice cream but the place was closed. She went back the her hostel and I went back home.

These are pictures of Black Mountain;

History

Today was sunny.
I woke up around 12:30 and didn't go to class.
I ate an egg, cucumber, a tomato, an orange and a cup of coffee.
I wanted to go to a place near Berlin called Wannsee. "See" means "lake" and "wann" means "when", so I guess it means "when-lake", which doesn't sound that great in English. I didn't actually go to Wannsee though, when I got off the train all I could see was old people and it seemed to me that Wannsee was mostly for tourists and the elderly.
So I got on the train that I had just got off of and headed back to something I had seen on the way to Wannsee, a place called Schlachtensee, which means "slaughter-lake", which sounds awesome - and is.
At first it was just hormones and teenagers, but the lake is large/small enough that I could walk to the other, quieter side within half an hour. There were still teen-aged boys and girls hanging out, but that's fine because I dig teenagers, and sometimes wish I still was one. I haven't swam in a lake since last summer in Kelowna so swimming in Slaughter Lake made me think of home a bit. I also had made some new cut-off jean shorts, which also reminded me of home a bit.
I got home and cooked beans, corn, and a tomato in a pot and ate it.
I finished watching the first season of "Battlestar Galactica" (2003). It was really great science-fiction drama. It's filmed in Vancouver and sometimes the story involves 'futuristic' architecture which is really just the Vancouver library or Science World.
I bought some new headphones and listened to Sunday Night Safran podcast. John Safran is so great, I don't really like the Australian accent, or even the English one, but I can't help but be enthralled with John Safran.
I painted a bit, then I listened to the CBC3 podcast a bit, and then watched "Kids" (1995).