I remember … Torstraße

I’ve been thinking about our time in Berlin lately, and the places that I used to frequent a lot, and places that meant a lot to me. One place that filled both checks is Torstraße. Not only did it have Baiz Cafe, my favourite Linkekneipe, arguably Berlin’s finest döner (Rosenthaler Grill), the cafe / laundromat where I had my first job, our supermarket, kiosk, our friend Andreas’ apartment, but it also led off to where I had my second job, Schokoladen (where I saw the Grey Daturas play once), a cornucopia of street art (including a few pieces from one of my favourite artists, El Bocho), the pub where I watched soccer with Olli, the U-Bahn stop named after one of the ladies we named our daughter upon (Rosa-Luxembourgplatz), heaps of late shops and too many other things to list.

That sentence was getting way too long anyways.

The spot on Torstraße with the most momentous significance for me though, was Deathless. Years ago on my first trip to Berlin, I dropped into this skateshop / street art gallery just out of chance, and saw this German girl with flame red hair and a blindingly bright smile, perched on a leather chair. Leap forward a few years and we’re married, and living in a Plattenbau at the junction that marks the start of that same street. Crazy stuff, nö?

It was one of those places that was a part of our everyday life in the three years we lived there, which rendered it a little ho hum at times for me (I don’t tend to smell the roses on the way to work, especially at 5.30am in the snow) but despite that, and the Hipster epidemic that seems to fester around that area, I’m still terribly fond of the place …

 

Deaf Metal

Hey, are you of the literary bent? And in Adelaide like … anytime this year? Yeah? Then I think you should go to this. Not just because I did the flyer, and I need the vindication or anything (I’ll cope) but because you should support the Arts and our friend Matt from Beer Swill Productions and get some poetry on. And perhaps some spoken word too. It’s all good.

La Vie en rose / Das Leben mit Rosa

Our little Rosa Marie, born 30th of March.

Vive la révolution!

Bittersweet

Dealing with grief can be complicated, although there are many ways out of the woods and into a sunnier place. I coped with the gargantuan blow of Sweet Tooth’s demise by adapting my Leatherface scribble into a shirt design. The double crosses are a nod to Void, to which I find Sweet Tooth similar, and this typeface I find rather sporty (I know it looks a lot like the one Extortion use but trust me, it’s not …). Whilst being geographically screwed out of the opportunity to see their last show (or, any of their shows for that matter), it is available to see here.

Avon calling …

I’ve been getting more than a bit excited by Avon Ladies’ Guns and Gold 7″. Dude, have you heard that? Oh my word, it’s some of the loudest and most blissful aural torture to hammer my listening holes in a long time and as far as I know, there are no t-shirts available so I made my own which I based on one of my old scribbles. How’s that for DIY, hmm?

Now I just have to get it printed on a shirt, which is proving to be a costly venture in this town. Oh hey, maybe that’s not so DIY then … more like, HSEDIFY … but I did do the drawing and design and just need the printing done so, that’s half the battle so more like then, DIWTHOSE. And obviously, I’m not going to make the t-shirt msyself so then … bah … whatever.

Typeface is AngelTears by Billy Argel. If you want to find out more about the wonderment that is Avon Ladies then by all means please, click here …

Food is power: DEVOUR!

On a related note, I’ve been reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, and seriously considering going vegetarian … if you’ve read it and weren’t spooked, you’re colder than Ed Gein. Brrr. You are freaking me out.

Things that make you go … boom

So we’re in Dresden for a few days visiting our friend Stefan and we visited the Military History Museum, wonderfully redesigned by architectural whizz Daniel Libeskind. I think I saw a nuclear missile in there. Although, I’m not sure. Just to be safe, I didn’t kick it or anything.

Hey! Did you know, that t-shirts were originally designed for the military? Well, it’s true. Damn straight. Check it out, I learned something new today, and then, I told you about it, and you learned something (in case you didn’t know that already). I learn, you learn, we all learn. I think that’s what museums are for … or something.

Om nom nom

I’ve been working on a few freelance jobs before my shift this morning, and blasting Adrenalin OD’s Humungousfungusamongus as audio retaliation against our neighbour below us. Her constant squaking disrupts my concentrated efforts towards the lofty heights of graphic design mastery, and let us never forget, this LP is a hilariously righteous work of thrash/punk that should be spun at every opportunity given. What, you don’t have it? You know what you got to do, now, quit messin’ round and go find a copy.

This drawing is based on an old one I’d done a while back, and used as a paste up around Adelaide. You can see one here …

Now, leave me be … gotta go do the dishes and get to work.

Strange things are afoot at the Circkle K

Social Circkle at Koma F, 1st June 2011.

Oi you, get some trousers on …

… and I thought I told you already, quit playin’ round with them swords.