Travis in Berlin

So, on Friday we went to see Seeed, who are an awesome reggae/hip-hop band and Berlin natives. They were welcomed home in open arms and sold out three amphitheater-sized shows in a matter of days. The show was epic, with a massive stage, costumes, set-changes and some of the most kick-ass reggae/dancehall music this side of Kingston.

This is one of many live shows I've gone to in the past month (I saw New Zealand's own The Black Seeds twice). And I've come to another cultural observation about Germans: They love going out to concerts and will do about anything the band tells them too. Like when the lead singer says "put your hands in the air!" no one is "too cool" as in America to get involved. They love to clap along, even the ones with no rhythm. They also love to buy merchandise and dance their white guy 80s moves. This is absolutely wonderful for a band, but I couldn't help thinking...

These Germans will do anything for a good showman with a microphone. Give a man a stage and a Sennheiser and the crowd wave their hands just as Simon says. It made perfect sense all of a sudden how Hitler brainwashed them all some 70 odd years ago.

Labels: Berlin, Germany, seeed, the black seeds, travel

So, I've been living in Berlin now for about six months and you really get a good (well, unsettling) perspective on America from this great a distance. You start to see how identical the Bushies are running things to the Stasi of Cold War East Berlin. Warrentless wiretapping, building walls along the borders, ...

What struck me today is there is this song, that was #1 on several European music charts, peaked at #3 on the German Singles Chart and was released more than a year and a half ago. And no, it's not some crazy house music by an obscure European band. Its the song "Dear Mr. President" by American artist, Pink.

Here's a link to a video and lyrics: http://becauseimaddicted.blogspot.com/2007/07/pink-dear-mr-president.html

What struck me most about this song is that it is almost ever-present on the radio here. I could turn on the radio right now and bet I could find it, but to my disbelief, no one I talked to in the States had ever heard of it.

So, it's pretty obvious to me that the Republican-backed Clear Channel Communications, which owns almost all the big media outlets in America has had it blacklisted. I can't help imagining what would happen to someone like Vietnam War era Bob Dylan or John Lennon in a political landscape like we have today.

So, lets use our last front of freedom, the internet, and at least give it a listen and pass it to a couple friends. And while you're at it, see Das Leben der Anderen The Lives of Others.

Labels: America, Berlin, Bush, Pink, Stasi, travel

Lemme get my two bits in here. If you're going to send out a mass email full of new baby photos, hilarious car accidents or cheeky men v. women jokes to a huge group of your friends/family/coworkers you're assuming your sense of humor and opinion meshes with or supersedes their's. So, you shouldn't get annoyed when one of the recipients (either inadvertently or deliberately) clicks "reply all" and forces their opinion onto the same unfortunate group of people. Such is the nature of emails. If you'd like to share a hilarious story about your weekend complete with embarrassing pictures maybe you shouldn't think about littering one's already over-crowded email inbox, but post it to your blog where you can delicately control the comments of your said friends/family/coworkers. end rant.

Labels: rant