Mayda3000

Obama speaks to the people of Berlin in a great speech. He talked about the Atlantic alliance and the need for freedom of press. I finally got a chance tosee him and hear him in person, me and about 200,000 others!

A fitting day (July 4, 2008) for the opening of the new U.S. embassy at Pariser Platz 2 next to the Brandenburg Gate. The embassy gave a great party with music and, most importantly, BBQ!

Another great CSD in Berlin. And, as always, it rained on us. But we had a gay ol' time anyway!

This year's LinuxTag was in Berlin at the ICC. Mayda3000 got to see some demonstrations of OLPC and a Linux-driven flight simulator. Sorry about the background noise. It was all very impromptu.

In a rare public appearance, the Dalai Lama speaks in front of the Brandenburg Gate about non-violence and a story about the Tibetan flag. An enlightening experience as always.

Having recently discover the Fläming Skate ring, I decided to give it a try. Wow. What an amazing track. Two hundred kilometers of the the finest, widest, cleanest, smoothest bike and skating circuit I've ever seen! Fläming is a county in southern Brandenburg, flat as a pancake but gorgeous countryside. Let's take a ride through the outback on a perfect spring day.

Ah, it must be springtime. The first of many street festivals to come this season. Myfest in Kreuzberg 36 was a success and whole lotta fun. Ten of thousands came out to celebrate the first of May as only Berliners can.

Berlin is known for being a green city. Lots of parks and open areas. But these trees don't just spring up by themselves. The Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland has a tree sponsoring program that plants trees throughout the city with the help of local businesses. IH Berlin PROLOG took them up on it and is sponsoring many trees in the neighborhood. This is the seventh tree PROLOG has planted and this is very special because it's right in front of the school. The type of tree is special too because it's a False Acacia (Scheinakazie) and the name of the street where it's planted is Akazienstr. How fitting.

The 5th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, "When Things Cast No Shadow," opened to the public. Cyprien Gaillard's film "Crazy Horse," projected at Skulpturenpark Berlin Zentrum, a semi-abandoned no-man's land in Kreuzberg, shows the drawn-out process of a memorial monument to the Lakota leader Crazy Horse in the Black Hills of South Dakota. According to the program, "Cyprien Gaillard's film Crazy Horse is a tribute to the sculpture-in-the-making of Crazy Horse in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 1948 the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, invited by the leader of the Sioux, began a sculpture to honor the Lakota leader Crazy Horse and Mother Nature. This monument, which will take approximately another eighty years to complete, will then be the biggest sculpture in the world. The dynamite used by builders when carving the figure into the mountains of the Black Hills, located beside Mount Rushmore, has wreaked destruction and chaos in the national park. The French composer and former opera singer Koudlam, who has collaborated on several projects with Gaillard, composed the music the artist's most recent film."

Julie helps us get a grip on our fear by using reiki.

Mayda3000's club correspondent, Julie, got together with Soundstream/Soundhack in his studio to find out more about the man behind the label.

Engineers and railway geeks rejoice! Tom went on a tour at the construction site of the new subway line U-55 at Brandenburger Tor. Braving the noise and dust, we can take a first look at the extension of the U5 and the new subway station on Pariser Platz. More information at UrbanRail.

Another hit for Mayda3000. Madonna is in town to promote her film, Filth and Wisdom, which is the first feature film that Madonna directed. It stars Richard Grant, Eugene Hütz, and Shobu Kapoor and was filmed in London in 2007. The film premieres at the Berlinale. Filth and Wisdom is described as a comedy/drama/musical/romance, the story features a Russian immigrant, ballet school, lap dancing, cultural revolution, poetry, night club, punk rock band, book writer, dominatrix and gypsy. .

The Rolling Stones come to the Berlinale to open their new film "Shine a light", directed by Scorsese.

Yea! At last, Underworld came to Berlin at the Columbia Halle and went mental while the adoring crowd danced and screamed.

Berlin hosts the Transmediale Digital Art Festival at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Got to see and hear a wide range of media about political and social issues, some would say conspirational, through the medium of digital art.

Julie expresses her thoughts on reiki and the community.

Big, bad German Santa came to our language school today, and demanded poetry and song before he looked into his sack of goodies.

Rik and Tom went to look at the stunning Christmas lights. The picture below is of Ku'damm/Tauenzienstr. Merry Christmas!

The Kinzo Club for the Chicago East Party. More drag queens than meets the eye. DJs Miss Roxy, Rico and Peto Eye from Amsterdam lay down the tracks that make the girls dance! Special performance by Kaey aka Manson.

Chicago Rose, a testament to professionalism and glamour! Tonight, at the Kinzo Club on Alex, she takes us to the top through a time-warping mix of classics. Berlin's drag scene at its finest.

The Berlin art scene continues to embrace the avant garde and the unusual. Kourasch Momeni is presenting "Iltismus", featuring the artist's works and philosophy. Kourasch guides us through his ouevre as well as his subconscience, along with his alter-ego, a stuffed polecat. In German, and a great story.

On a rainy afternoon in Mitte, what better way to get out of the weather than to join a gallery tour and have a look into some of Berlin's hottest art spaces. Asta von Unger was our very knowledgeable and gracious guide. Along the route, we visited Field in Auguststr. then onto Galerie der Kunststiftung Poll around the corner in Gipsstr. and finally to Galerie Barbara Thumm to see what Chloe Piene is up to these days. Sorry English-speakers, just in German this time!

The FESTIVAL OF LIGHT will turn Berlin into a sparkling metropolis with a firework of illuminations and events for two weeks from 16 to 28 October. World-famous historical landmarks and spots in Berlin, e.g. the Brandenburg Gate, the TV or radio tower, will be staged impressively by means of light, events, projections and fireworks. Tom Williamson and Mayda3000 were there.

Once again, the city of Berlin does great honour to its infamous reputation by holding the 5th annual European Hustlaball on Friday, 19 October 2007 and respectfully requests the pleasure of your company with Chi Chi LaRue and Shequida. This upcoming annual event promises to be more than just a unique and unforgettable, erotic experience. Hedonists, porn stars, sex-workers, exhibitionists, peeping toms, porn fans, as well as the interested general public are cordially invited to attend and to partake in the celebration of the largest, superlative sex party the continent of Europe has to offer. Which other location in Europe would be much more suitable to hold such a special celebratory event than the legendary KitKat-Club? The KitKat-Club’s motto this year is “back to the roots ”. The KitKat-Club moved back to its traditional downtown location and has just recently opened its newer rooms in the heart of the city of Berlin. More dance floors, a larger, more spacious lounging area which invites you to rest, relax and to cuddle, as well as more performance stages, all make the KitKat-Club much bigger, better and much more exciting and thrilling than ever before. Only you are to blame, if you remain alone during your entire stay at the new KitKat-Club. Furthermore, numerous bars attentively tend to the guests’ wants and needs by extinguishing their thirst and even provide the most shy amongst us all with special cocktail drinks helping free them from all restraining inhibitions.

Tonight is fashion at Spindler und Klatt. The Pony Club, one of Berlin's best hair stylists, shows us what Berlin is wearing. Complete with interview at the end of the video with Tim Kreutzfeldt.

The Neues Museum is the last museum on Museum Island in Berlin to be restored. Tom Williamson and I went to check the opening of the construction.

On the occasion of the 17th German Reunification Day, a party was held in a tunnel that connects Wedding (West) and Prenzlauer Berg (Ost). Wedding will represent with Oriental music and P-Berg will lay down some Electro. These two disparate communities come together to celebrate the reunification of Germany.

CO Berlin is working together with Thomas Koefer to show his photography collection in the Postfuhramt. The exhibition, Stripped Bare, shows "unprettified exposure, right down to the skin, with close-up views of the body, would no longer merely bear upon an intra-aesthetic issue or inherited ways of seeing. Then, as now, the body, which contains sexuality within itself, was under suspicion: of breaking taboos, of transgression and of subversion." One of the German characteristics I really admire is their comfortableness with the naked body, either in art or in the flesh. No strange morality fogs the issue, allowing photography exhibitions like this one to take place without incident.

An evening in the Konzerthaus on Gendarmenmarkt. We're going to listen to the Scottish Youth Orchestra while marveling at this amazing Schinkel building.