Bright Eyes Cleans Up in Essen

Last night Simon, Pj and I caught the Bright Eyes show at the Weststadthalle Essen. Of the all the shows that I've seen of theirs/his, I will come close to saying that this is the best one I've ever been to. I think that Conor, though I am much more attracted to him with shorter hair...really personified his music. He played tracks from the new album Cassadega as well as tracks from his last 3 albums (not including Digital Ash) as well as some tracks from releases with other artists including the stong Southern State, which I adore!! and I Will Never Be Happy Again. Anyways, they had a really great preformence, not playing the tracks exactly as they sound on the album recordings but using many different instruments, and adding a little jazz flavor. In light of this, I found it so hard to describe the music to Simon's mother...I don't know, folk-country-rock-pop-...jazz? Well, lets just say it's very American-Independant sounding. Hmm. Whatever, it is good. Conor complained about German food and told stories of tagging shirts and 'smokin a lotta pot', trying to relate to the industrial district of Germany. He also made the announcement that if he ever went broke (which I don't see happening anytime in the remote future unless his assumed cocaine habit gets out of hand or he starts spending his money at the same rate as my brother) he would come to Germany and start an air conditioning company and supposedly 'clean up'. We'll see Conor, we'll see. So, all in all a fantastic, entertaining show, a real crowd pleaser. Now, hopefully I can convince Simon to get off the couch and go see the Decemberists in Cologne or Bonn or wherever it is on the 23rd. I haven't heard their new album yet -gasp- but I'm sure they will put on a good, though perhaps not equally as good show. Ironically I have never seen them play live, though they are currently based out of my home town and have played more shows there than I think Mike Jones has said his own name. The video for Sixteen Military Wives was shot in my effing old high school for christs sake.
In other news...I have finally cleared up the visa situation here and have been told that it won't be a problem for me to stay here in Germany on my tourist-soon-to-be-residency permit for another 3 to 6 months. Though this hasn't been finalized yet it is such a relief. So I won't have to push the proverbial envelope with my residency allowance in order to stay here until I can score a study visa. Oh yeah, I will be moving to Frankfurt in August. Simon got himself a 1-year contract to start a traineeship program at the Royal Bank of Scotland, which it exciting, that starts in september and includes 1 month living in LONDON. I'm not sure if this London business includes yours truely, but I can always dream. We are looking at apartments in Sachsenhausen (no, not the death camp!), a stadtteil (neighborhood) of Frankfurt that has, supposedly, a lot of nightlife and museums and culture, etc. and even it's own kind of alcohol! Apfelwein! Or Appelvoy! The former is what it is and the latter is how I have heard it said, So I guess it's both, and by the way it is a king of hard cider, which to me sounds like a headache, but that is to be seen. Nonetheless, I am looking foreward to Frankfurt life. Before that I think that Simon and I may pay a visit to Hopfen in Southern Bavaria where is family has a house, it is near the Neuschwanstein castle, or perhaps go somewhere else for a couple days. Well, that's it for now I think. Take care.

What was I before this?

Just a small thought, something that came to me as I was reading Everything is Illuminated by Johnathan Safran Foer, that is, what was I before this? A paper was mentioned, one written by a character in the story, with a title something along the lines of "To the Dust: From Man You Come and to Man You Shall Return." I have to look around myself, in light of this, and wonder, how much of this dust around me was human before, and what kind of life did it lead? Did it create anything? Did it love? Where was it and what was it before it was here? Within all that exists around us lies the secrets and the history of all time, since the beginning, whenever and whatever that was. We all know, of course, that nothing is either created nor truelly destroyed, and that everything around us, and we ourselves, have always been, in some form or another, and will always be. I, for one, find comfort in this.

Beyond that, there was another, similar case in which I was reading a paper on the Philosopy of ecology that was sent to me by a friend in which a paper was mentioned, written by a Norwegian, that claimed that Man is the most tragic of all creatures on this earth because "he has learned enough about the Earth to realize that the Earth would be better off without the presence of humankind." I thought at first: So ture, so true! Then of course I reflected for a couple moments on how much of Man really realizes this? Does it really matter to them if they do? Our period of experience on this earth is so finite that people get too greedy to care. I.E. the bush administraion (a.k.a. the US oil lobby) claiming that global warming is just a myth. Which it is. I mean...what?