DJ for hire...

There is a bar in the Karolinenviertel (Caroline Quarter) of Hamburg that has no name. Friends refer to it as the Igeil bar (at least that's how it sounds. I can't confirm it, because the bar has no name). Anyway, at this bar there is a little date book for people who want to DJ. You just find a free date, put your name in the book and show up that day with the media of your choice to rock the house. A few weeks ago David and I were there with our friend, Michael, who brought the book to our table to find a free date. I thought it might be fun, so I added my name, too.

Last night was my debut as a DJ. Since all of our music is on my laptop (in the interest of traveling light when we moved) I showed up to this grungy, beat up old bar that normally employs two well worn turntables for musik machen with a spiffy Lenovo laptop. I felt sort of inadequate without big milk crates full of old vinyl and the constant tinkering on the turntables that goes along. Oh well. I parked my notebook on a stool and cued up the playlist I'd been working on all week. My theme was American rock and roots: Johnny Cash, Primus, John Prine, Bruce Springstein, Wilco, etc. As I was plugging my 'system' in and letting Windows boot up (how very uncool), the bartender, Vera, told me that DJs drink for free. Nice. But it was Tuesday and I had to work today. Far less nice. I weighed my options and ultimately I felt obligated to at least make a reasonable hourly wage. So, I threw caution to the wind with a .33L Astra (and then some).

The music I had in mind wasn't such a hit, unfortunately. Most of it anyway. I tried some Old Crow Medicine Show and slow Johnny Cash. People were sort of staring at the floor. I could take a hint and I (in my vast experience as a volunteer DJ) wanted to be at least a little responsive to the clientele. I've been at this bar when the person controlling the music has made it their personal quest to thoroughly familiarize you with their own very obscure, very important genre of music (or die trying). Not I, modest readership. I went instead with uptempo and/or a little weird. Germans like their music/books/culture a little weird & complex - think Nietzche. I still subjected them to Wilco, however. Love me, love my moody, drug addled band who pretends to be from Chicago.

What else? We took a day trip this weekend to a little town 30 minutes south of here called Lueneburg. The town was at one time one of the wealthiest in Germany thanks to salt. It is a very nice little town with lot's of historic Hanseatic architecture and stills seems pretty well-off. The most notable thing about Lueneburg is the condition of many of the buildings. Also thanks to salt. Due to the extraction methods used, the ground under the town shifted enough to make many of the buildings bulge, buckle, bend and, in many cases, look pretty comic-bookish. I guess it's all structurally sound and it certainly adds to the charm. A must see for Hamburg visitors, I'd say.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is no Thanksgiving in Germany. These characters are tight with the holidays, I am here to attest. I mean Thanksgiving aside. I understand that. But there just aren't many other federal holidays on the calendar. Except in Bavaria. Apparently those Bavarians like time off. I vote we move our operation to Bavaria in the interest of more holidays. That's not really the point I am getting at. The point of the Thanksgiving tangent is that we are going to celebrate on Saturday with some other Americans we know. So don't worry, we'll eat until we bust, too. Just not tomorrow.

Happy THanksgiving, by the way. And, I still love Hamburg, but I don't like their holiday schedule.