crucial

Berlin vs. New York Round IV

Why do people live in New York ? There is no relationship between them. Except for an inner electricity which results from the simple fact of their being crowded together. A magical sensation of contiguity and attraction for an artificial centrality. This is what makes it a self-attracting universe, which there is no reason to leave. There is no human reason to be here, except for the sheer ecstasy of being crowded together.

Jean Baudrillard, America 1989

I moved back to Berlin.

I don't know what it is about New York, but it drives me slowly insane. My visits back there over the years have been enjoyable and I figured I should go there to find some new destiny. After 9 months I get worn down by the arrogance and the noise and especially the high rents and food prices. Worn down by always chasing money to fill somebody else's pocket.

Most everybody in New York is trying to get somewhere. That's the point of The City : you go there to make it. So if you aren't Donald Trump, you still haven't made it and you still have to hustle. Everybody is hustling all the time. It rubs off on everyone. I figured it would do me good to get back in the game, but as soon as I got there I didn't feel like playing.

It has to be said that New York and Los Angeles are at the center of the world, even if we find the idea both exciting and disenchanting. We (Europeans) are a desperately long way behind the stupidity and the mutational character, the naive extravagence and the social, racial, moral, morphological, and architectural excentricity of their society. - JB, America

He also says that the Europeans will always be Bourgeoisie. Damned straight, that's why the pastries are so much better here. America is advanced like Derivitaves. Their moral value system is also strangely abstracted in the same way. Perhaps Bush believes that his account will eventually show a Moral Profit if we would only give him a little time, yes the moral hedge fund is down at the moment but ...

I'm back in my old apartment in Berlin now, right off of the canal with the street market and the swans. As soon as I got here I felt more relaxed than I have in months. My ears have finally stopped ringing (somebody needs to take a big bottle of WD-40 to the subway in Union Square) and my meditation feels like I'm making progress again rather than just attempting to keep myself out of the loony bin. I distinctly feel like I'm home.

Links and things

I am timeblind on myspace. thanks for the add.

I am crucialfelix on del.icio.us which is where I link to all the interesting shit I come across.

I put my photos up on flickr

NYC events iCal : anything that looks good.

Berlin events (parties, shows, vernissage, films): subscribe to google calendar / iCal

When I listen to music at home it all gets echoed onto here and on my Last.fm page. Most of the time I don't use that cause I don't want you to see me obsessively listening to my own mixes, really bad working titles.

You can read some posts I thought were interesting from various feeds.

I've been doing the Dance Music Business Resource since 1995, back when it was on hyperreal.org. Articles and info for artists and small labels. Recently I've been posting interesting industry news items and adding some new content about downloads etc.