Lovefest meets Loveparade

There we go...my weekend did start kinda more spontanious than expected. In short, I decided to join the Massive Attack concert in Berkley just on this Friday. Berkley is barely 40 miles nothern of San Jose on the other side of the bay area and moreover the home of the Berkley University, another famous College besides Stanford. That probably has been the reason why the concert was held in the Berkley Greek Theatre. As you may assume it was a huge arc-shaped arena with an amazing acoustic. So Duncan from Newzealand, Markus, Martin and me made our way up to Berkley through the obligatory fridays traffic jam. Once arrived we barely missed the quite famous pre-act, who was nobody else than DJ Shadow. Well, he used to make good house music before he ran over to Hip Hop. Never mind, it was quite ok. But then finally Massive Attack started their performance with one of my favourite songs "Risingson". Their show and music was quite powerful and melancholic at the same time, I really liked it. It is that kind of creativity in music that you painfully miss in today's songs. Thus the music was not primarily about singing, it was more the interaction of all the instruments in an harmonic manner. But I don't tell you new things if you know Massive Attack. At the end I felt good about the invested 60 bucks :) But that wasn't my entire weekend. Next day, around 11 in the morning ;), we went to San Francisco again for the famous Loveparade alias Lovefest. It is an imitation of the Loveparade in Berlin. San Francisco is said to be one of the most fashioned city in the world. So where else except here should be held another Loveparade? Basically it is the same but kinda more familiar and more intense. The floats are going along Market Street which is right in the center. That means narrow and dense packed streets. The floats themselves are smaller than the German ones and accordingly they deliver less music power but they achieve the same goal anyhow...they make people dance. One time I even heard a remix of the "fantastischen vier" with "troy" as a house version or I saw even German flags...quite understandable since the idol is the German Loveparade. I felt kinda proud of my country *cough*. So what about the people....well they are crazy, even more crazy than their German representatives. Sometimes I couldn't get rid of my big grin while being confronted which so many colors and exotic people, where some of them were even walking around naked. GROSS!! But thats San Francisco. At the end all floats were gathered at the central market place. And thats were the party continued till the early evening. Me, Duncan and Alla picked some nice floats and started dancing. That was real fun. Honestly, if you ask me I would prefer the Lovefest since 2 Million people in Berlin is definitely too much for any kind of enjoy. Moreover dancing through the streets of San Francisco has something exciting and delightful. Next time I will go again but more freaked out...I felt way to normal.

Vegas oje oje

Just one week after we left for LA and San Diego, we decided to go for another "short" trip. in short, we started from our IBM Lab around noon and arrived in Vegas 8 hours later. On the way we listened to German folks songs, constantly. That's hilarious. Sometimes my heart cried with songs like "das boese ist immer und ueberall" or in English " the evil is always and everywhere". We landed in vegas around 11pm and started to drink the good old budwiser again before we decided to join a party in the Ceasar Palace. We left our hotel "Excalibur" via cab which actually intended to drive us to some strip club...for free. Quite inviting but not desired. We finally managed to get to the club but there was a 300 feet waiting line. Since we were quite tispy we decided to wait. We splitted up the group into two groups; a waiting group and a gambling group. BAD IDEA. I lost 40 bucks at the Roulette. Well, no worries, that's still in budget, apparently 1,5 hours work at IBM. Stefan was quite more successfull, he lost around 200 bucks. We had so much fun telling jokes about that incident. Anyway, next day we started gambling again. VERY BAD IDEA. This time I tried Black Jack. I can't tell you what kinda bad idea it was. Meanwhile I had 20 bucks plus before I lost 150 bucks all together at the end of the day. The consequnces are obvious: bread and water for the next few weeks. Hey it doesn't matter, that's what you have to handle when you go to Vegas. We do not play in the sand anymore...*CRY*. Anyway, at night we started drinking again, vodka, beer and bailey's. I was controlled wasted :) we went into Studio 54 at the MGM Plaza. It was really nice, a huge dancefloor, 2 levels and 80ies music all night long. Even when you went for the restroom everything was in marble and you could find Listerine Mouthwash and Deodorant next to the water tab. I swallowed 2 bottles in order to get rid of the beer taste. Most of our time we spent on the dancefloor. Actually I can't remember that. Furthermore I can't remember that me and my friends went for some gambling afterwards around 4am in the morning. THE WORST IDEA EVER. Well, I am still enjoying water and bread, especially since Arielle came over this weekend and it was her birthday. We had a great time, basically just staying in bed the whole weekend while playing cards. Sometimes we made it out to buy some *yummy* dress for her birthday or to have a walk through the Golden Gate Park in SF with some Japanese Tea in the Japanese Tea Garden. An appreciated weekend that has gone by so fast. Anyway, next weekend is gonna be busy again. There is a Massive Attack concert in San Francisco and a day after there will be the famous Lovefest over here, sorta the Loveparade of America. I expect some crazy looking people and terrific house and techno music. Afterwards we will join a Party that hopefully will last till 6am in the morning with a whole bunch of known DJs performing like Paul Oakenfold. Damn, I really need some good music now....see ya later guys.

San Diego & Los Angeles

This time we decided to go to LA and San Diego over the Labor Day Weekend where the Monday is free for literally everybody. So on Friday Timo, both Sebastians, Christian and my person started southward. We arrived at our Hotel next to the famous Hollywood Blvd at night, enough time do have short walk over the walk of fame. You can find any sort of actor like my picture may emphasise. The trip to LA was quite exhausting but really fun. We drunk some beer in the car which is strictly prohibited, even closed cans are not allowed at all on the fore seats. On Saturday we started early more southward to San Diego, right at the border to Mexico and honestly...you can see that when you run through downtown. A lot of homeless people sleeping along the streets. But then there are these Islands in front of San Diego's shore. You can reach them over an awkward looking but huge bridge. They look kinda these arms of the up rising aliens in the movie "War of the Worlds". Anyway this beach is one of the best beaches over here and besides enjoying the waves, you can even see some aircraft carrier of the army base which is located on these islands as well. At the end we took some beautiful pictures of this incredible looking sunset ... time for being romantic guys :) After we returned to LA we started drinking again...of cuz! Nothing can compare to our delicious and famous Bud Light. Honestly shotguns are not a real problem tho but I messed up anyway...how pathetic. On Sunday we finally made our way to the Nascar race in LA after driving down the Mulholand Drive and visiting Beverly Hills and the houses of thousands Ferraris. We even had a look at UCLA, the University of California Los Angeles. So impressing, it looks more like a castle with huge green lawn areas. No dirt, everything seems so luxury , how can people study here? Ok, for 30 grants a year they may do it voluntary :) Anyway the Nascar race was really cool. I already experienced a DTM race in Germany but honestly these cars are so enormous and loud. And all the people around me were freaking out and cheering like crazy, especially during the national anthem and when some stealth bombers were performing some action in the air. Weird country :) Nevertheless, the race was quite nice , but definitely too long. All together 250 rounds each 2 miles long, respectively 4 hours. Well back home we again started...guess what? I am sure you know. On Monday we had a tour through the Warner Brother Studios which was quite amusing. But that was it. We kept moving homewards around noon and arrived in the late afternoon where I finally took my well-deserved sleep. But my life stays busy, this weekend we head to Las Vegas again for 3 crucial reasons: Gambling, Clubbing and Drinking :) See you folks.