Does time fly by even faster in Berlin or could it be because I’m still on New York time and therefore at least 6 hours behind everything? Okay, that makes no sense, anyway…
Last weekend, during my first 48 hours here, I was inspired to share two videos. With some delay, here they are.
The first video, “Hanas Tanz Team”, I still needed to cut together, which I finally did yesterday – fittingly at the same amazing location on the Spree river where I shot it (although you don’t see the river in the video) on Friday. Actually I was up until almost 5 this morning finishing it, which might explain the possible overuse of effects (a late night phenomenon). But maybe it perfectly captures the devil-may-care mood of the night (or the way the dancers looked to me through the wine curtain).
The song “Do That Again” is by beautiful Emma Van Hooven (recognize the singer from somewhere?). A big thanks to the fun dancers (Sophie, Rafi, Hana and Frankie) for letting me capture & share and for letting me dance along (Kinderdisco?) and, together with everyone else on Friday, for making my first night in the potential future home so welcoming and wonderful. Special thanks to Erik for driving me to town. And one more time: Happy Birthday, Hana!
Because of my slow connection here in Germany, the above flash version played majorly out of sync on my computer (now I understand why online video isn’t as popular here yet). So below I also embedded the high quality Quicktime version, which I highly recommend for the in-sync experience. Just let it load in first.
By the way, there was no planning involved in this video. I was just taking pictures with my little Canon Elph snapshot camera while the others were dancing, next thing the first one jumped on the bench and then they all just “fell into place”… I thought it was a good omen for the Berlin chapter.
The evening also included another art opening with work by John von Bergen (a few weeks ago I attended his opening at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn – don’t miss it!) and dinner and slip-sliding home across the ice… I get the sense I won’t be bored here.
Um… let’s do that again, do that again…
Saturday I met my brother at the f6 Award, a talent award for musicians in the north eastern states. It was a long and rather chilly event, with surprise guest Polarkreis 18 (how fitting) and with the winner not being Berge, who was one of our favorites.
While observing the competition I thought about the TED Talk Video I had watched earlier that evening: “Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success”. The ideas he shares in this video really speak to me and seemed appropriate in the light of the music award show and the Berlin Film Festival, which is starting here today (and to which I have yet to submit anything, so I don’t feel rejected here, haha). He warns of the danger of us always comparing ourselves to others and assuming we could achieve the same success as they have and beating ourselves up when we don’t. He makes some very interesting points about judging people and about career success vs. happiness.
The 2010 TED conference (bringing together people from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design and beyon) is going on in California right now – so watch for new videos full of information & inspiration soon – or catch up on old ones. You can subscribe to RSS feeds and a video podcast featuring a selection of archived “A Taste of TED Talks” (search via iTunes) or the full RSS feed “TED Talks”, which offers new videos several times a week.