i’ve just, amazingly, had my first BATH since late december (not to say i haven’t showered, but a bath… mmm…).  a small cosmetic surgery on my left knee gone awry meant open wound and bandaging.  still does, but it has developed a new fresh skin finally and seemed ok for bathing.  wow that felt great.  and now i’m up to putting down my thoughts on the burlesque party matt and i attended in berlin.

La Fete Fatale

does anyone want to come to this debate with me?  It’s Friday afternoon and you have to sign up, but it’s free.  The website to sign up is: http://www.amsterdambrightcity.nl/zuidas/nl/community/programma/2,1,492/

and here’s the info below the cut:

Live Radio Debate and Launch Casual Friday

HOWL – yes, an illustration of ginsberg’s poem.  very well done.  it combined court scenes, a reading scene, and live and animated illustrations of the lines of the poem.  it was funny and beautiful and perfectly done.  i loved every second of it.

DUOLUO TIANSHI (fallen angels) – wong kar wei.  need i say anything more?  it was an older (1995) film.  it was less action than portrait of several young people in broken lives that occasionally crossed paths.  again, loved it.

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP – a documentary about a failed documentary about street artists, including banksy.  it was BRILLIANT!  if i had only seen this one movie the whole festival i would have left happy.  🙂

SAWAKO DECIDES – a story about losers who accept that they are losers and go on with their lives.  i thought it was really existential.  they didn’t take control of their lives to make them better, per se… they just took control by accepting that they were losers.  it was funny and not touching.  maybe it was touching.  it had a good sense of humor.  afterwards, there was a q&a with the director, during which everyone asked dumb questions like, "in japan, is it such a bad thing to have left your family?"  uh… yes.  anyway, i don’t think this movie will probably get very much acclaim or go anywhere, but i enjoyed it immensely.

so, 4 for 4.  yay!

today we’re seeing 2 more:  Besuoro and Mine Vaganti.  more about them later.

yesterday i had a 5 hour session regarding on how to be a really independent indie producer.  it was fascinating.  many of the things i learned could be applied to bands or entrepreneurs.  i’ll put details up when i get around to writing that one up for my boss.  but i’m thinking i got more out of it for my own purposes than she’ll get out of it for ours.  it was a fantastic presentation!

today:  besides movies, explore!

oh, and i haven’t mentioned the cool places we’ve hung out at… later, later… so much to tell, so little time!  berlin is awesome!

i’m going to make 2 posts today, because this was in my inbox today:

so…  yay!  another concert for us!  i’ll try to get the resolution better next time i’m online…

it’s been a rough start to my 10 days in berlin…  i got into town with too big a suitcase and took a taxi to my pension.  that part was fine, but rapidly illustrated to me that this was the first time i’ve gone to a new city without prepping a map first.  i got to my pension, but didn’t know where i was or how to get anywhere.  i’m in this turkish district south of potsdamer platz.  the food is good!

i went into potsdamer platz to get my accreditation badge and my boss’s, too, but they, as it turns out, are in the martin gropius bau, so went there, wrong entrance, around the side, lines lines lines.

lots of lines.

berlin film fest is all about lines.  you line up to get tickets, accred or public, you line up to get into movies, you line up to use computers to order online sales, which you must pick up within 15 minutes, so you must rush to the internet order pickup desk to get in line there, so that your tix are still there when you get there.

i’ve been in line with and for my boss all morning, am waiting for matt to get here, and we’re blowing this joint and rushing off to a flea market for the afternoon… i have work to do from 5pm to 7pm, then drinks/dinner/movies with the boss.  tonight: older hong kong action flick: duoluo tianshi (fallen angels).

yesterday: howl, which rocked.

later!  matt’s here!

some of you know i work at a company where we are sometimes acquiring movie rights for our clients.  so we get a lot of emails with plugs for movies in distributors’ new catalogs.  here’s the top thing in my inbox this morning:

I see i didn’t make it big enough for you to see the text well… it’s the best part:

hahahahahahah!

yesterday i returned to the gym.  i’d been out for almost 3 months because:

1. i re-injured (badly) my bad knee while participating in the "circuit training" activity that the trainers do for 45 minutes every day.  i could barely walk without pain and finally after 3 weeks went to see my doctor, who gave me anti-inflammatories and told me that i would need to work hard to strengthen my quadraceps, and that the trainers at my gym could help me to do that.  this was right before xmas, and my schedule was too full to hit the gym (yes, very very full), but on 28 dec,
2. i had an appointment at the VU to remove a small bump on the inside of the same knee.  it was removed, stitches were applied, and i was told to try not to bend my knee or sweat for the next 2 weeks until the stitches came out.
3. when the stitches were removed, the apparently closed wound popped open and was filled with pus inside so they bandaged me up and told me not to sweat or do much of anything for the next 3 weeks until i came in and had it looked at.

last week i went back to the VU and they pronounced me still needing to be careful with cleaning etc. but safe to go back to the gym and commence bicycling to work again.  so thursday i bicycled to work (felt fine) and friday i went to the gym.

several of the exercises the trainers had given me are no longer appropriate for my knee (and also my shoulder, which was injured years ago in a motorcycle accident then badly reinjured while i was kickboxing), so although marco didn’t have time to meet with me yesterday, he did give me several quick adjustments i could do, and made an appointment for me with ruud today.  so i worked out for about an hour and a half yesterday (it’s a bit slower when you have to be careful with certain things), and then went dancing (HARD) last night at the combichrist show and dj party afterwards.  my legs were killing me when i went for my appointment just a little while ago.

but i’ve got a new schema to do now and i’m looking forward to doing it.  today i was pretty much burnt out, so ruud and i just went through little practice versions of everything on it, then i took off.

tonight:  dinner at my colleague’s house and then STRANGE at ankhnaton (dance party).  yay!