NYC – Friday

It’s been 10 years since I was last in New York and I personally feel that the city has changed significantly since then.

It feels much calmer, people seem extremely friendly (I’ve gotten more excuse-mes, certainly more than I would be getting in Berlin!) and the subways are clean.

What I find strange though is, that since every one knows the NYC aesthetic from posters and films it feels a little bit like a museum. I know that sounds strange but it really feels like that to me.

I have two friends with studios here and both their locations are crazy cool. One is across he street from the flatiron building (I’m looking at it while I type this through a big glass front!!) and the other is on the top floor (21st to be exact) on union square. That’s where I took some pictures.

The following are the notes I took while walking along… Unfortunately communication isn’t where I wanted it to be so I have Internet on the iPad at edge speed 😐 and no Internet on the iPhone so the tweeting of pictures while I go isn’t possible. Bummer.
Prepaid phone service from AT&T, was easy enough to set up, this would have Bernd such a pain only a couple of years ago.

Prepaid data service was only available from t-mobile since AT&T refused a foreign credit card for data plans. Whatever. The t-mobile daily data plan of course had two drawbacks: speed is limited to Edge (jeeez) and I can’t stick the SIM into my iPhone because the iPhone is locked from t-mobile Germany. To sum it up: we came _long_ way but there’s a universe of room for improvement. Start at the ridiculously high roaming fees.

First train I have to take is rerouted because the station is under construction for the direction that I needed. So I got to see the view from the beautiful overground Astoria station. Sometimes a detour works wonders.

When I take a picture somewhere I _always_ get the stink-eye from people around me. Do I look like a spook??

Advertisement: happiness is ordering food on your phone whiteout saying a word. Really? Food is supposed to be really sensual. Oh well…

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Soundtrack Cologne 8.0

It was a great time at Soundtrack Cologne. The program that they manage to put together is impressive, it was fun and informative! I spent a little too much time in the business side of things workshops instead of the inspirational and fun workshops about the music, but hey, that’s important too!

I met some great people including Jeff Rona (who I met about 10 years ago at Berklee) and Joris de Man.

And of course all the guys who I’ve known online for quite a while have finally a face, body language and voice.

It’s inspiring and it’s incredibly important to talk and exchange ideas and also support each other in our daily work challenges.

1. Berliner Kinderkongress – Unbezahlbar

Heute war Aufbau, morgen geht es los mit dem 1. Berliner Kinderkongress des Grips Theater an dessen 2. SpielstĂ€tte, dem Podewil Theater, ich freue mich schon sehr darauf, ich wollte nĂ€mlich seit langem wieder mit Kindern arbeiten. Wir werden fĂŒr die nĂ€chsten 3 Tage eine kleine Gruppe sein (4 Kindern und ich), die fĂŒr die musikalische Untermalung der AuffĂŒhrung und Abschlussveranstaltung des Kinderkongresses sorgen.

Unser Workshop hat den Titel “Wie klingt GlĂŒck” und ich bin schon sehr gespannt, habe auch schon einige Ideen, aber jetzt will ich doch erst mal sehen, was die Teilnehmer denn so mitbringen. Deren Ideen sind mir wichtiger als meine eigenen und ich hoffe, dass wir die gute umgesetzt bekommen. Mehr gibt’s dann hier!!

tedPAD – create millions of amazing and really bad TED talks

A quick thrown together TED talk:

It’s not nose picking. You also means keeping your back straight et cetera, et cetera. But most importantly, you need the brain to always think straight. I’ll give you an illustration of this: In the middle of the world lies all the knowledge and wisdom we need. I would like to remind you of French intellectuals ridiculing these things. And – admittedly – when you look at the middle of it all, you could see the situation running the same way that a downward spiral would. It makes you yearn for coffee – you know it will be wonderful. I’ll give you some related data of the United States health situation. Compare this to French phrases such as “et cetera, et cetera”. But I should be more specific when referring to a milky weak coffee which makes you both happy and excited. How many of you would prefer that to tea? I think it’s just like when the middle of the world lies all the knowledge and wisdom we need.

Get your own here:

tedPAD – create millions of amazing and really bad TED talks.