Let's go back to August, when I was in Dresden. At my Hostel there was a lovely Australian couple staying there as well. My first night there was pretty miserable out so I stayed in and had a few beers in the living room and checked my emails. I ended up talking the whole night to this sweet couple, just the usual traveler chat, but it was nice. We ran into each other a couple of times in Dresden, but then again, Dresden is a small town. My last night in Dresden I went out with a couple guys from my room to check out the diverse and densely packed Neue Stadt. We hopped several bars that night and at our second to last one, ran into a guy who had been at the free dinner at our Hostel the night before and his friends who were visiting from Berlin, we spent the rest of the evening with them at an outdoor bar in the heart of a residential neighborhood, which by the way...would never fly back where I'm from. I get the same sense Dresden had but here, in Berlin. A city that is nearly three times the size and hosts an extra three million people. My first few days here, I took a free tour, informative, orienting and as I discovered in Prague, a way to meet people. On the tour I made friends with some people from Spain and Argentina, we made our way to the Mauer Park, the largest flea market and outdoor free karaoke event I have ever seen. Having been there about thirty minutes, I ran into the Australian couple, on their way out. A few days later I ran into our British tour guide on the street doing his grocery shopping. That was of course within the same hour that I had run into the "friend from Berlin" of our friend from Dresden, the "dinner freeloader".
There have been several other chance encounters on the street since the early days here and up until this week I had always thought "hmmm... Well, what are the odds!" I always just blamed it on me not having a job and thus exploring the city like all the other expat losers out there in the city of Berlin.
Until this past week, As I think I mentioned in my last entry, I was in a music video shoot. I spoke with the bass player Michael, he had overheard me telling someone I was a contemporary dancer and informed me of his latest project. Working with contemporary dancers, he creates a digital sound score for some local dancers here and thought I might be interested. I think I have also mentioned that I have met a woman named Caroline, who owns a cafe in Neukolln, Heroes, at which I will be performing in a couple weeks time. We were meeting about the show and discussing having another collaborator to hopefully draw the audience a bit more. I mentioned casually how I met a bass player at a video shoot who was working recently with dancers, how possibly, this man might want to collaborate. She let it go for a few minutes and then asked a few questions... "American? Tall-ish? Brown hair? Upright bass? Micahel? Tuttle?" to each question, I replied "yes." Turns out the man lives in the same building the cafe is in and has performed there before....
Yesterday, I went out into the pouring rain in search of the venue for the bearded lady project. I found the complex but found no Zusanna. I went searching around the building a bit until I found an open gallery where two men were sitting around chatting and enjoying a beer. I asked them if they knew anything of the event I was to perform at, like, where it was... The owner, Javier, tried to help me out but to no avail. I thought bah, screw it, Zusanna's an idiot, she never gave her number, she hadn't tried to contact me since Tuesday, she obviously does not care. I went home and sadly admired my home made beard.
This morning, coffee in hand, I searched Craigslist which is fast becoming my morning ritual if not to find work and gigs, than to laugh at some of the ridiculous posts which I intend dedicate another entry to. I see an ad for a volunteer art exhibit set up. Again, not paid, but it's something to do, there will most likely be beer, I won't spend money doing it, I'll meet some people and most likely get invited to the opening for free! Why wouldn't I do it??? I reply with my details and availability as instructed. An hour later I receive an email from Javier, saying he met me yesterday and I was more than welcome. Probably because I knew where his gallery was...
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