Fernweh & Heimweh in the time of corona
Fernweh (German noun) — a feeling of longing for far-away places. Heimweh (German noun) — a feeling of longing for home; homesickness. This pandemic takes from us in so many […]
Fernweh (German noun) — a feeling of longing for far-away places. Heimweh (German noun) — a feeling of longing for home; homesickness. This pandemic takes from us in so many […]
Like loving the outdoors, live music and the ritual of brewing a pourover coffee, my involvement with radio isn’t something I found at random in adult life. More like: It […]
What do a rave-age Joan of Arc with an inhaler, Luke Evans running away from things and a rapper channeling Genghis Khan vibes have in common? They all show up […]
Folk-bluegrass supergroup I’m With Her are playing their first show in Berlin, and they’ve already discovered the nude sunbathers in Tiergarten. That feeling, lying around hedonistically under the trees, is […]
Think in Berlin you’ll only catch live banjo music at a Mumford show? Think again. Interestingly enough, this city harbors a small but thriving old-time music scene. Nor is it […]
“Go simple, go solo, go now.” The mantra of the late, great paddling legend Audrey Sutherland is solid advice in all kinds of situations, whether gathering your guts for an […]
The oldest of the three Santa-suit-clad stand up paddlers squints his eyes against the falling snow and eyes my inflatable kayak, bobbing at the foot of Molecule Man, with friendly […]
On average, over 150,000 human beings die each day. But on January 10th, one of those people was David Bowie, and such was the creative brilliance of this artist, that […]
Once again, it’s December in Berlin – the month in which snow falls and Christmas markets spring up like mushrooms, the scent of Glühwein wafting from every corner store. A […]
The information patterns holding some atoms into myself are hurtling in their trajectory through time and space, and the information patterns holding some atoms into Bob Dylan are hurtling in […]
In which my Resting Bitch Face slips and a would-be smooth talker ends up telling me his life story. Sometimes, all you can do is listen.
Act to watch: Soulful sister rock duo Larkin Poe. Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell found time in their whirlwind tour schedule, supporting artists like Conor Oberst and Elvis Costello, to […]
Subversive, subterranean, sublime: While almost all of Berlin was over in Kreuzberg watching samba dancers at Karneval der Kulturen, I was exploring a lesser-known festival of alternative culture and living […]
My hometown of Seattle and my adopted metropolis Berlin have much in common. Aside from the often cloudy weather, widespread love of plaid and strong music scenes, both cities have […]
The Germans like to keep Sundays chill. Long brunches, a newspaper on the balcony, an extended Spaziergang, not too much excitement – they have mastered this art. I’ve learned to […]
This is not Lorde’s first time in Berlin. Ten months ago, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter played in the German capital for about 90 people, by her memory. Her first European tour […]
A queen of indie pop in the kingdom of minimal techno: On Tuesday, April 29, Sweden sent another of its most successful music exports, Lykke Li, to make waves in […]
Thessaloniki. City on the sea, crowned with crumbling ruins, ancient ramparts looking out to the Aegean. On my extended weekend here in late March, I left planning and organization behind […]
What Grumpy Cat is to the Internet’s feline lovers, @NeinQuarterly is to Germanistik appreciators everywhere. The endearingly pessimistic Twitter feed, created by University of Pennsylvania professor Eric Jarosinski, has long […]
Thursday, Feb. 27, 8:35 p.m., Berlin’s Astra Kulturhaus. Billy Lockett’s soft, earnest vocals drift in a cloud of smoke out the open venue door, as I huddle in the entry […]
Hard to believe that a full year has passed since last year’s Berlinale film festival! But once again, Berlin is festooned with red carpets and studded with stars. I dropped […]
When I first got to Berlin, a wide-eyed college kid drinking in the vibrant metropolis, one of the first things my program showed us was a film called “Berlin Calling.” […]
Thunder gods, astronauts, rebel starlets and small men with furry feet: The fall/winter blockbusters of 2013 have started rolling into theaters. I headed over to Berlin’s CineStar at Potsdamer Platz […]
June 22 was Berlin’s 35th annual Christopher Street Day, or Pride Parade, and it was just as vibrant and beautiful as I remembered. Crazy to think that two years ago, […]
Primal drums, paper dragons snaking through the skies, massive billowing feather plumes to make a peacock look pale, spandex and techno, otherworldly forest nymphs clad only in green paint and […]
In the past couple months, a German television show has worked its way into my generally television-free life. It’s the sort I would normally take particular care to avoid: A […]
Perched over Kottbusser Tor, in a nest of slanting glass, rests a warm, smoky bar called Monarch. The Monarch curves cozily above the street, on eye level with the elevated […]
A man with devastating charm and good looks, capable of taking home any woman in a club—and yet reliant on Internet porn for true satisfaction. This is the premise of […]
A year has passed since my nostalgic days in exile, grumping around my college campus while longing for the knifelike cold of a Berlin winter. The appeal is hard to […]
In tackling the full-on, devastating intensity of experiencing Die Toten Hosen in live concert, I’d like to maintain some objectivity. Therefore, I will start by providing a considered, nuanced list […]
Currently in the midst of their “Himmel auf” tour, Silbermond illuminated Berlin’s O2 World arena last night with their unique, powerful brand of emotional Deutschrock. The four musicians, originally from […]
They sing of failed love, disillusionment, and despite all the pessimism and cynicism of postmodern society, a certain stubborn tenacity of spirit. They have inherited the mantle of Hamburger Schule […]
Berlin is all about defying labels, fusing cultural movements together, being many things at once. A bartender in a techno club wearing fashion from her own international vintage boutique store. […]
Sometimes massive stars don’t seem real onstage. You can be clinging to the barrier, looking up at this person from five feet away, but maybe they’re too glamorous, or too […]
As the eurozone continues to flounder under the looming specter of insolvency in the southern nations, more and more of these countries’ best and brightest are preparing to jump ship—namely, […]
Berlin is a melting pot, a meeting of worlds. The city’s architecture is a prime example—old, stately apartment buildings, their raw brick corners gnawed by air bombardment, mingle up against […]
I have a serious problem watching movies all the way through. Blame it on the insidious influence of Twitter and constant Internet exposure on our brains, insatiable hunger for trivial […]
The trees in the Hauptstadt are ablaze with bright fall hues, and now Berlin’s most iconic structures are as well. The Festival of Lights 2012 kicked off tonight at Potsdamer […]
At the end of August, two days after a nightmarish appointment at the Ausländerbehörde, which only created further uncertainty about the state of my visa, I moshed all my stress […]
I received some excellent news on Friday, Sept. 28—a mere two days before my last written departure deadline, word came through from the Ausländerbehörde that my application for a visa […]
As another weekend rolls around, the Nomaditor-in-Chief is finally getting around to last weekend’s nightlife report. Nomad dispatches sometimes take a while to arrive—you know, camels and all that. :) […]
Godshot Coffee Klub, Immanuelkirchstraße 32, Prenzlauer Berg. Reviews seemed to tout this place as one of Berlin’s best coffeeshops, so my expectations were set a bit high. Arriving, I was […]
A footloose, nocturnal nomad could write entire books about the club scene in Berlin alone. You could probably go to a different bar or dance club every night in this […]
On Thursday, Sept. 8, Berlin’s club culture gathered again in protest of the new tariff structure proposed for 2013 by the GEMA, Germany’s only significant copyright management organization for musical […]
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy frequently lists a towel as the wanderer’s most essential object for successful travels. However, barring a nutrient-endowed towel like Roosta’s, a nomad needs to […]
The widely-reported proposed increases for 2013 in GEMA’s taxes on music clubs and nightlife venues continue to provoke outrage, counter-demonstrations and artistic protest initiatives across Deutschland. Berlin is a natural […]
The end of an era came yesterday for the beautiful, crumbling ruin in the heart of Berlin Mitte. Long a symbol of the wide-open, “arm aber sexy” spirit of post-unification […]
Another blog, another beginning. I intend to maintain Midnight Monsoon and Nomad Musik as part of my portfolio, but each corresponds to a phase in my life and writing that […]