As I’m sitting here I am literally bursting with energy even though I haven’t slept much. I have been having to coordinate my recent plans around the train strikes that are happening in Germany. The strikes started on Monday and are going on for 10 days supposedly. It’s really messing with my plans and I had to completely change things. I originally had a show booked for tomorrow in Leipzig but had to cancel it because of the train situation and the options for getting there are too stressful for me to deal with right now. Lindsy and I found a way to Berlin tomorrow though that way I can still play my show there at Madame Claude’s on May 8. From there we are taking a flight to Paris a day early before my first show there on May 11.

Earlier this week Lindsy and I took a train to Hamburg where we met up with Against Me! (the band I mentioned in the previous post). The train was about 4 hours long and I had time to read one of my books, Nico: The Life and Lies of an Icon. I am almost done with the book and couldn’t put it down. I do like to stare out the window occasionally while riding the train but I feel it’s the best time for me to get my reading done. Currently I am sitting in the dark with my candles burning. I have deemed them mine with the drop of oil, the carving of a symbol. I have found that Nico was extremely into candles and found myself relating to her quite a bit. “Candles make stars of light. A room is a universe.” Nico had said (P 199). John Cale of The Velvet Underground said, “Candles. Yes, candles. Candles everywhere.” The book I’m reading about Nico has really opened my eyes to who she was as an artist. Understanding the roots of her German childhood really frames the portrait of her life. As a child she experienced numerous things that would have left someone with PTSD (something she had but never was diagnosed with). Traumatizing events like seeing Jewish people being railed away in carts during WW2, being given a lampshade made of human flesh, a bar of soap made of human flesh, and being raped as a 13 year old by a man who was tried in court and hung (many women testified against him). Events like these made Christa Paffgen (Nico) into the person she would be her whole life; a detached nihilist who sang with a hauntingly beautiful voice. Such sorrow is heard in her singing, it is something that cannot be replicated. It stands alone in its powerfully low androgynous depth. During interviews she would usually just say “ho ho ho”. I have never read about a more interesting human. She was born in Cologne, a city about 20 minutes from Bonn. During my stay here I have been to Cologne about 6 times. Before she moved to New York City, Nico spent a lot of time in Paris and London due to her modeling career. I have already been to London and will be in Paris soon. While in Hamburg, Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! asked me if I wanted to go to Amsterdam with them the next day and open for them at Bitterzoet. I said yes of instantly, double checked with Lindsy, and she was on board immediately. The next day I opened for their sold out show and was met with love from Against Me! fans. It was Lindsy’s first time in Amsterdam and my 2nd time. We had to go back 2 days later for another show at a government funded punk community center called OCCII. The people who volunteer cook vegetarian food for the band. It was great to see two different sides of the music scene in Amsterdam.

This week I went back to the Beethoven house to have an audio tour after reading more of the Beethoven biography. Going there a second time around was definitely a good idea. I could actually understand all of the items on display and their history this time. I viewed paintings of Christian Neefe, Beethoven’s music teacher as a child that encouraged him to compose his own music. They don’t allow pictures in the Beethoven house or I would haven taken photos of the original compositions hand written by Beethoven.

Tonight we went and saw Salome, the opera composed by Richard Strauss. I already knew the premise and how it would end because we read about it in The Rest is Noise. That still didn’t take away from the creepy ending with the three decapitated heads being served on a platter. This version of the opera was more modern than I had pictured in my mind. The set looked like the 1920s.