"brand new -- or me..."

I've been wrestling with the new Brand New album (Deja Entendu) for about six weeks now. To quote the Amazon.com review: "If Deja Entendu sounds like the work of musicians discovering their talents, it's also about learning that desperate heartache isn't just about girls who don’t call back." At first I really rejected it. The sound is really different. And a lot of the songs espouse a sort of hopelessness I can't, have never been able to, identify with.

But it stuck in my head, and I keep listening to it. It is a more mature, fuller sound - and the lyrics can be really gripping. I started to be annoyed at myself for enjoying it so much...

I've come to conclusion that I like it a lot. In fact, some of it is as addicting as their first album, Your Favorite Weapon. I'll probably always like that album better, but...

Anyway. Some lyrics follow:

( this is so messed up )

( I am heaven sent... )

( wasting words on lower cases and capitals )

( desperate desires and unadmirable plans )

There's more, but that's way more than enough already.

adventures in beer-sitting

This weekend I went with a whole crew of people to track down a brewery in Eringsdorf. We were orginally going to go to a different brewery (I'm a little hazy on the specifics, here) somewhere else, but apparently that one is closed on the weekends. So something like a dozen giddy ESA tourist kids went tromping off down the road to Eringsdorf.

The walk took a solid hour at a leisurely pace, and we arrived in Eringsdorf to discover that (of course) the brewery we were seeking closed early on Saturdays. Ha! So we went into a local bar to have a drink while waiting for a bus that would take us back to Weimar. Everone had a quick (and surprisingly cheap) beer and then we went out and sat around at the bus stop. Closer scrutiny of the bus schedule posted revealed that A) its listed Start Date was Sunday and B) the bus line we were picking up was going in the wrong direction anyway.

So we set off back in the direction of Weimar on foot again, sort of vaguely looking for another bus stop. We ran into a random guy we had happily given a 50-cent piece to when he had wandered up to the bus stop 15 minutes earlier requesting one. Turns out he was driving back to Weimar, to the Goetheplatz (pretty much exactly where we needed to go, where the bus would have taken us) and didn't mind piling us all into his minivan. As it happens, the guy in question worked in the kitchen of mon ami, the University youth center. serendipity.

Eventually made it back to Weimar and ate overpriced Mexican food, then wandered over to the student club Schutzengasse to complete the night by getting blind drunk.

Will someone please explain to me how, on an evening in which literally nothing went right and everyone kept laughing and making loud sardonic comments about what idiots we are, I had a great time? Like one of the best since I've been in Germany?

No. I don't understand it either.


Anyway. I meet my Dad in Berlin next week. Then there's only one week left before I get to go... "home, where my thoughts are straying / home, where my music's playing..."