34

Yay! I, somehow, managed to sort out a video uploading problem so am now able to present my birthday blog. Yes, ladies and gentles, I am now officially 34. I knew that this day would come and it turned out to be a very pleasant experience. On Sunday morning myself and Eric indulged in one of our favourite activities, Sunday brunch, in a middle-Eastern restaurant we like just up the road from us. For those of you who are interested we had a choice, from, an all-you-can eat buffet (we were thinking of you Steve!), of different roasted and marinated vegetables, different dips, meats, cheese, bread, eggs (scrambled, boiled), as well as fruit and cake. It was, according to Eric's official food grading, very delicious.

Eric with Niko

Then we rested up before our main event of the day - a football match (that's soccer to my American relatives), Hertha BSC Berlin versus Freiburg, at Olympiastadion. We met up with our friend Tom and his son Niko (4). Tom is from the south of Germany and his team is Freiburg so we were there to cheer the minority. Both Hertha and Freiburg are bottom of the Bundesliga (the German first divison) but being a home game for Hertha, Tom didn't have much expectation.

The Olympiastadion is pretty impressive. It is the original building from the 1936 "Nazi" Olympics where Jesse Owens angered Hitler by winning 4 gold medals. The building's architecture has a real Nazi feel to it with some strange statues of presumably Ayrian athletes around the place.

Anyway, to the match. There was a good sized crowd there considering it wasn't a major game. Tom got us great seats, right in the middle and down near the pitch. We were right beside the area where the hard-core fans were (see video at bottom) so we could enjoy the atmosphere but not have to be near any of the ruckus. The fans have a good enough reputation, though Tom was pointing out some flags of local fanclubs as being facist, basically skinheads in Hertha gear.

Tom and Niko and lego set

However as you can see our section was nice and safe. I think the game was a bit much for Niko, but he played happily with his lego and was particularly excited about getting an ice-cream at half-time. We had a great time as the match ended up being pretty thrilling. Freiburg scored easily in the first 5 minutes and went on to thrash Hertha 4-0. It was the worst beating that Hertha had for a long time. For some reason though the hard-core fans were not deterred and continued singing for the whole match.

Which leads me nicely to the video. I really wanted to capture the atmosphere of the place - the sound from the fans was pretty amazing. Two things to look out for - first the kid bopping away and second the scoreboard. These fans are cheering away while their team is down 2 goals!!! Anyway, enjoy this taste of football in Berlin. We certainly did. It was a great way to celebrate turning 34.

PS Sorry, put up the wrong video the first time.

Lost in Translation

Staying on the theme of language, one of the most frustrating, and also most funny things, about being an English speaker in a non-English speaking country are the regular misunderstandings and miscommunication in our daily conversations. With our muddled German and with German people's muddled English, often with some kind of muddled sign language mixed in, we find ourselves regularly having strange and wonderful conversations that leave us scratching our heads.

The instances have been so many that it's hard to think about it now. The first that comes to mind is the time we went to a friend's gig and got talking to a woman who I thought was the hairdresser of small dogs. She was in fact in a hairdresser, but she had been trying to excuse herself from the conversation by telling us that she didn't like 'small talk'.

Often there is just misunderstanding through mispronounciation. When the weather was hot here during August I learnt a new German word 'schwül', which means 'humid'. Which can be very easily confused, if your lips aren't puckered enough when pronouncing it, with the word 'schwul' which means 'gay'.

One of the hardest things for a German speaker is the pronounciation of the letter 'w'. I was once talking to a German friend who has had bad luck in love and was feeling cynical about men and meeting Mr Right. I was saying how hard it is to make oneself vulnerable and open to another person when one is feeling wary. She said 'wunerable, wunerable. Agh! I can't even pronounce this word.'

Or sometimes the translation just comes out sounding funny. I was commenting on the full moon to my new friend Sibylle and she said 'oh yes, I feel so furry'!

Anyway, this is all par for the course with living in Berlin. And very entertaining it is too. I will leave you with a popular ad here in Germany for Berlitz, which shows the perils of mistranslation.

New old video

Hi all. Sorry for the slowness in blogging lately. I was digging through some of my stuff here in Berlin and came across a video that our friend Emma had done for me a few years back. It was used for some of my gigs. I would have it projected behind me as a played a couple of songs for added effect.

I decided to edited it down as it was 10 minutes long and use it as a video for "This Long Goodbye" from my last CD. I posted it on Wednesday on YouTube and Facebook and good a lot of lovely comments. It is meant to tie people over until the new album is ready, hopefully at the end of this month.

Emma shot this video on 8mm film in four locations in Dublin including Heuston Station which is the main train station in Dublin if you are traveling to the West and South of Ireland.

So, here it is - drum roll................

Back by popular demand

Word has reached me through the grapevine that a new blog is long overdue, and well, yes, how true this is! After 90 or so blogs I was needing a bit of a break. But I'm back now, not with a blog on our summer in Berlin (which was busy and fun), but with a blog on something that has been on my mind for the last while - linguistic lubricants.

Let me elaborate. Basically in the last year or so, on our travels and in my attempts to learn a new language, I've discovered that every language seems to have a phrase or word that the locals use more or less all the time. It's usually sprinkled in among the conversation, not quite as a filler as much as to help the conversation along.

In my cultural investigations I have come up with three examples of this, from Germany, Japan and Ireland (but of course!).

EXAMPLE No. 1 - The German 'Genau' (pronounced 'ge-now')
This is something every foreigner who comes to Germany seems to notice, the German use of the word 'genau'. If you eavesdrop on any conversation here in Berlin (which I kind of like doing) you are bound to hear this word at least once, if not ten times. They absolutely love it. The literal translation is 'exactly'. Germans when speaking English will often say 'yes, of course', which is the same thing. It can come across as sounding condescending in this translation, but it's not meant that way at all. It is really an affirmation, a way of saying 'hey, we are on the same wavelength', kind of like 'you, got it!' or 'right!'

EXAMPLE No.2 - The Japanese 'Ne'
Japanese people really use this word alot. When we were in Japan in April I pointed it out to Eric, he really was amazed by how it was used. The meaning changes depending on how you say it. If said with an upturn in tone at the end it means 'isn't it? or 'right?' If said just normally it means 'right'. So, for example, you might mention how hot it is by saying 'atsui, ne?' and to agree with you the person will nod and say 'ne!' And this can go on and on so that in the end you get a lot of 'ne'ing, which is kind of funny. But hey, it works!

EXAMPLE No.3 - The Irish 'Janey Mackers'
Actually this isn't really a conversation lubricant as much as a really Irish phrase. In fact, I think it might be a country-Irish phrase, and I, for one, love it! It also comes in the shorter, plainer Janey Mack form, though I have been known to lengthen it to 'Janey Mack Attack'(!) I actually didn't realise that I used it that much until my German friend Sandra asked me one day 'what is this Janey Mackers you speak of?' For those of you who don't know, it means 'wow!' or 'gosh!'

So next time you want to sound like a local (from Germany, Japan or Ireland) or you just want to bring a little multicultural flair to the conversation why not try one of the above? If someone surprises you, give a good old 'Janey Mackers!' or if want to agree with someone just nod and say 'genau' or 'ne'.

So those are my thoughts for today! Hope all of you are well!

Also, if any of you have any other examples, thoughts etc, please post in the comments section.

Finished recording my new album

Me in the recording studio. These photos were taken by my drummer for the album, Dave Hingerty.

After 14 days in the studio and a few extra at my producer's (Fabien Leseure) apartment, the new album is finally finished recording. We will begin the final mixing in about a week. But, we had done rough mixes of each song as we finished them over the last few weeks. I had passed on taking the rough mixes home to listen to, waiting instead until they were all finished to then take them home and listen as a whole album in the track order I had in mind.

I play a lot of electric guitar on the new album. Notice the Russian sign above my head.

So a couple of weeks ago, I sat with my MacBook and headphones and had a good listen. Keep in mind, some of these songs I haven't heard in nearly three weeks and had forgotten exactly how they sounded.

Me and Fabien in the studio. He is setting up my vocal microphone.

My first reaction was lots of smiles and a sense that we had achieved something very special for this album. It was more than I could have hoped for and a joy to listen to. These songs are my babies, so it was with a lot of pride, a good dose of humility and a huge nod to my producer that I was so thrilled listening to them take off and fly and come into their own. Can't wait to share them with you!

There was a lovely upright piano in the studio, that belongs to Fabien's partner Nina Hynes, that I played on one song and Fabien played on a number of songs.

Sounds of the city

Well, I am now back from my retreat in the German countryside where I spent ten days cycling, walking, sitting looking out the window, writing and sleeping. That sounds like I was quite active but to tell the truth a lot of that time was spent indoors. It was a bit intense at times being on my own for that long and having all that time to think. It really was quite the psychological detox. How and ever, I came back to Berlin feeling really good and with a renewed appreciation for life in the city, though a big part of my heart still loves the countryside.

While I was in Stolzenhagen I got a real kick out of taking in all the sounds around me, just things that I would never hear in the city. Most of it was animal sounds, otherwise the place was pretty quiet. There was some funny ones like the donkeys who belonged to the woman downstairs, who sounded uncannily like a group of heavy smokers having a good laugh. We also passed a sheep that Eric said sounded like Kathleen burping. Must have been something in the grass.

Anyway, having returned to Berlin I have taken my ultra sensitive hearing with me. There is, of course, the ever-present noise of traffic. It's like a distant hum that quietens down at night. But there are lots of other sounds which I am finding quite endearing such as the opera singer across the road who sings in the late afternoon and the little girl in the next apartment block who practices her violin. There is also a constant stream of people going to and from the park beside of us, parents and kids mostly, sometimes happy, sometimes not. And there are also a lot of birds around here, probably because of all the trees, some who mimic car-alarms and some who just plain tweet. I think I am enjoying all these sounds because it is just a reminder of all the bustling life around me, which is really summertime in Berlin.

Taking a Break

Tomorrow we are off to the apartment of a friend of mine, Liz, out in east Brandenburg, out by the German-Polish border and I have to say that I can't wait. After nearly a year and a half in the city, and after months and months of saying 'let's go to the countryside' we are finally getting to ditch the bright lights of Berlin for greener and more importantly, quieter surroundings.

Liz's apartment is in the sleepy 'dorf' or village of Stolzenhagen. There are about 200 people as far as I know and a large part of that is a co-operative made up mainly of artists. My friend Liz is American and also happens to be a wonderful artist and performer. In fact she originally visited Stolzenhagen when she took part in a dance festival there a few years ago.

Now herself and her husband have an apartment in the village in the old schoolhouse (pic above), which they kindly offered to us while she is in Berlin having her baby (she is at this moment one week overdue).

Anyway, we are so looking forward to taking our break from city life, I think me in particular. Having grown up in the countryside I go through stages when, if I am away from it for too long, I get cravings for forest and fields and peace and quiet. Eric is actually coming back to Berlin for a week to record his album while I stay on in Stolzenhagen. I plan not to do too much, maybe just some reading, writing and mainly staring out the window at the wonderful green view and breathing in the fresh countryside air.