Freitag, September 22, 2006

finnjazz in popkomm

popkomm brought lots of finnish artists to berlin this year, again. the concert i picked out was a jazz concert.

first, Lenni-Kalle Taipale danced on piano (as G put it). i laughed out loud for his body language and performance. the music sounded pretty improvisational, in a very good way. i had heard Iiro Rantala performing live before, so i knew to wait for a good show in his case as well. the beat-boxer he brought with him to the stage was more than surprising and sounded simply amazing. but he might have kind of stolen the show.

the last was UMO jazz orchestra. they played well, but big band music was never my favorite, and having heard two amazingly good shows already, both me and G had difficulties concentrating, so we went home. thanks to blessed bvg, (trams and metros etc. of berlin) which operates almost all night through, we were home in no time.

so all of you who are in berlin and like jazz, but weren't in wabe last night, you really missed something.

one last remark: carcassonne is a nice game. spinn-off hunters and garherers seems to be addictive; i've played it at least ten times with G since tuesday when we bought it. hence, waiting for the next game night with friends.

Dienstag, September 19, 2006

so-called vacation

the long, sunny month in france is long gone, more like a dream now. after that i headed for a week to finland to a summer cottage, bringing couple of german friends with me. i enjoyed my time there, of course, it my favorite place in earth (honestly). but you can barely call that a vacation. first couple of days i spent explaining where what was and how this and that worked. on third day i got sick, and laid the next two days down in my bed. the last two days would have been near perfect, unless... we'd not have managed to burn the sauna down. yes. really. luckily no-one was in, the fire was noticed immediately and it didn't take too much time before the firemen were there. and it was nobody's fault, but rather something structural waiting there for who knows how long to catch fire. so these people are still my friends. and follow-up in the next summer: building a sauna. wait to see more.

so coming back to berlin last wednesday i was more than exhausted and felt like shit. after sleeping trough friday and weekend, i'm working again. and the energy i got in france for my work seems to be still there.