Google Berlin office opening


Yesterday, Google opened their brand new Berlin office and invited a lot of people to take a look at their rooms, have some drinks and mingle. Of course, it wouldn’t be Google without some special features and activities. Cookies provided the food and drinks and all of that was not only vegetarian but also very colorful. Green, yellow, blue and red cocktails illustrated the Google colors.

The evening started with a hangout between Philip Schindler, Google VP Northern and Central Europe and politicians with a web affinity like Jimmy Schultz and Halina Wawziniak broadcasted to big screens throughout the office. The Tiefschwarz DJs took over and it turned into a very cosy office party with many, many people. In other words: it was packed.

Blackboards for the guest’s creativity

Every room is named after a Berlin club. There was a Kater Holzig, Cookies and Weekend room, I did not spot a Berghain though.

Why travel when you got Google Earth on screens as big as your living room?

Good night.

Ausgehen am Wochenende: Gomma und I Heart Berlin

Es ist mal wieder Zeit auszugehen. Wir haben lange genug mit Bier in der Hand am Straßenrand gestanden oder auf Dachterassen gechillt. Es wird Herbst und auch wenn es noch warm scheint, bald ist es Zeit für den dunklen, warmen Club.

Nächsten Samstag sind zwei Veranstaltungen, die ich hier empfehlen möchte: Eins meiner Lieblingslabels, Gomma, macht eine Party im Flamingo. Und meine Freunde von I Heart Berlin feiern ihr Fünfjähriges im Naherholung Sternchen. Sind beide nicht weit weg voneinander, man kann also hoppen!

GOMMA PARTY
Flamingo Berlin
SA, 29.Sept 2012
22 Uhr

With Moullinex (Portugal), Munk (Marseille), Telonius (München), Ben Mono (Berlin), Kill The Tills (France), Dandydeath Manner (Italy)

Very Special Guest:
Lars Eidinger & Autistic Disco (Berlin)

I HEART BERLIN 5th Anniversary
Saturday, September 29, 2012

Location:
Naherholung Sternchen
Berolinastr. 7, 10178 Berlin-Mitte
(on the left side behind Kino International and Gewerbeamt)

20:30h
BERLIN FILM NIGHT with Mobile Kino
(a screening of contemporary Berlin-related short films)
free entry

22:00h
I HEART BERLIN’s 5th BIRTHDAY PARTY
+ presentation of scarf collection with Front Row Society +
+ interactive Kaleidoscope Game + photo and GIF exhibition +
door: 6 EUR

DJs
Planningtorock, Chance&Dark (Kool Thing)
Oh Mehr, Lidl Bromance

Great Dubstep video documentary


I found a great film about the evolution of dubstep and its protagonists and places. The SRK crew follow people through Croydon, the Big apple record store, the club Fwd, climb house roofs with Heny G from Anti Social Entertainment who explains how pirate radio shows work, visit Sub FM, explain the mastering process, film club nights, meet Mala, Skream, Hatcha, Kode9, Benga, N-Type, the Plastician, Mary Ann Hobbs, and many, many more. Very insightful and entertaining!

Outlook 2012 – Sunday

Deserted festival stages have something melancholic, yet promising about them. At daytime, without people, they look like resting giants, awaiting the night and the lights and the audience. All silent, about to be filled with life. I like that view. Here are most of the Outlook stages at daytime.

This is the main one (quite a standard festival stage).

The following are all the stages in and between the old fort. Fort1 and Mungo’s are the biggest and connected by a path on top of them. Inside the fort, there is the Courtyard, the Dungeon (inside, very small) and my favorite: Noah’s ballroom. Only a small circle, surrounded by big walls.

I did not get a good picture of the ballroom by day, so here’s one by night.

The most impressive is certainly the Moat. Situated in the old water moat around the heavy walls of the fort it is almost 100 meters long and forms an infamous tunnel of bass.

Back to the beach to enjoy the last sun beams.

All I needed now, was to get on a boat. I walked down to the harbor to try my luck. Only to see the last of four ships float away in front of me.

But no worries, I managed to convince the boat organizers that it would be extremely necessary to also report from a boat to make the festival experience complete.

I was superthankful for the courtesy to put me on a boat in the last minute, because it is actually very difficult to get on these. Apparently the official tickets sold out within 10 minutes. And many people would have loved to get on the boat I finally came on.

Take a look at the Reggae boat. It’s not the one I was on, but it’s a good impression of the steamy atmosphere there.

Boat parties in general are great. Not only because floating is nice and sun and nature and all that but from the view of the social dynamics also. You really have the chance to get to know people. Obviously, nobody can leave for several hours and the music also builds up a very intimate atmosphere.

Talking about the music: As said, I was lucky to get on the DMZ boat with Mala. Very deep and crystal sound, relaxed and intense, like made for this kind of cruise. A perfect start into a night where I should get much more of my desired style of music. On display was also Skream’s “booze cruise” but that would have been too much for me for sure.

So I danced smoothly and talked to some Swiss people, a bunch from the Netherlands, an engineering woman who designs oil platforms and last but not least the Croatian sailor who gave me his flirting advice: “You have to let the girl know that you want her!” Ok, thanks!

My next stop was the Dockside stage with the Chestplate vs Osiris night. I stayed for almost three hours and watched Kryptic Minds, Distance and Youngsta together with thousands of people and with such a clear and powerful sound that made the music literally appear in the air. Impressive. Also the amount and the excitement of the audience for musicians who probably would gather no more than 300 people or so in Berlin!

The rest of the night went on like most festival nights, strolling around, bumping into people, like the owner of the hostel I stayed in and also other people I had met the day before. It is this kind of familial feeling that makes you sad when the event is over. And despite the size of the area and about 20 000 people being there, Outlook is small enough to allow for this encounters.

I wish the organizers all the best for keeping that spirit. But I am quite confident that they will. These people know what they do and they did a really good job. The sound is superb, the light was good, although there is certainly more room for unusual ideas like this projection surface out of styrofoam which makes the stage look like a socialist building.

The securities were professional and friendly and certainly did a good job in managing the crowd in the very little floors. The only security issue were some dodgy black taxi drivers who tried to get people in their cars and apparently also attacked someone directly outside the area. So be careful there!

I also liked the food, especially the fruit salad revived my spirits friday at night! And suprisingly there was no big brand sponsoring to see, only the usual drink branding. And that’s quite cool because it makes the festival more unique and less standardized.

To put in a nutshell: Even if I missed my flight home because the boat came in too late to Venice and I am on a train to Milan to catch the last Easyjet flight to Berlin which makes about 160 EUR extra including the train ticket and even if it was an Odyssee to get there, I had a great time. I had inspiring musical moments, many conversations with new people, some sun, some rain, some meditarrenean water around my feet and the perfect little getaway I needed from Berlin.

Thank you Outlook, hvala Pula and Croatia for this weekend!

Outlook 2012 – Saturday

Wow. This place is amazing. And worth every minute of the odyssey it took me to get here. Remember: I wanted to visit Outlook Festival 2012 and figured out a cool way to travel from Berlin: To Venice by plane and to Pula, Croatia, by boat. Here’s what happened.

The boat ride was not at all as glamorous as I had imagined it. Instead of elegantly floating in at the harbor with a glass of Martini at hand, the boat jumped over 5 meter tall waves for three hours constantly. Almost everybody got sick on the boat including the dog. Finally in Pula, the storm and rain was immense, streets drowning in water, flashes and thunder all around. Yay, welcome to the summer festival experience!

So no more festival for me on Friday. I had checked in at a nice hostel, the Riva hostel which is directly down at the harbor and very friendly and cosy, went out to eat and fell asleep almost instantly. Saturday consisted of looking at some sites in Pula like an old Franciscan monastery, skillfully explained by a girl I had met on the boat and who happened to be a archaeologist. Great! That is the thing about travelling alone: You get to know so many people and interesting stories because you’re so open and flexible.

The hostel hosted mainly “Outlookers”. With very very dirty shoes. So I decided to get some new ones to avoid ruining mine. I chose cheap white trainers to get the most out of the upcoming dirt experience.

With a bunch of English girls, a Canadian and a Finnish guy from the hostel we took a bus and after a long walk ended up at the beach with a bar, a little reggae stage and people playing around in the water.

Wow. And here it was, the magical festival moment. I had lost my faith almost with all the rain and the hassle, but wow. I could feel the good vibes and sense a bass from far away.

To explore the site, I had some experts on my side again. Kleinski and Sesner from the Riddim Box took me under their wings and showed me around. And there was much to see. The area is huge and the festival has more than 10 stages.

During the day, there’s music by the beach and boats float around in the Mediterranean with soundsystems organized by different labels. At night there are two big stages down by the harbor, one middle sized stage in between the beach, the harbor and the fort. The fort is from the 19th century and in and around are 6 more stages. Some of them only with a capacity of 120 people which brings in a true club atmosphere. In total I would assume Outlook festival has about 20 000 visitors.

So, totally overwhelming. Great sound, great lights and crowd consisting mainly of young British bass music lovers mixed with enthusiasts from Croatia and the rest of Europe. It took a while until I started to figure out what each stage was like. I basically ran around in between floors bumping into people I had met before and just enjoyed the music. With no particular highlights I have to say. I must have seen Ben UFO, Mensah, Hyetal, Fantastic Mr Fox and Kode9 and everything was good but maybe a bit too much to digest at once. And also the constant rain got on the nerves after some hours outside. Still, I was so happy to finally being there and having made the decision for this little trip.

Getting home was another lucky encounter. I met a girl who works at the hostel I stay in and two of her friends and we were going share a taxi. But the drivers wanted to charge five times the usual price. “Bastards, that’s too expensive, I call my dad!” said one of the girls. Dad came, drove us home and I had a funny conversation about football on top. Great day, great finish. With the bass still in my head, I fell asleep.