Midnight Monsoon

Another excellent reason to be a German Studies major: you get to write your thesis on awesome topics like popular music through the lens of German national identity! No, seriously. Along with many, many textbooks, I’m analyzing song lyrics from a range of eras, including the recent rap hit “Das alles ist Deutschland,” from Fler and Bushido. As our former Nachbarn in Neukölln can testify, my friends and I listen to that song pretty much every day anyway. :]

Although I do adore my thesis, sometimes you have to put down the books and take a break. Reward yourself for hard work, as it were. Which is how I ended up shopping the Internet for more rad German things to buy. Like this utterly gorgeous and comfy-looking hoodie, which due to international shipping costs I will not be acquiring yet, but will definitely buy when I’m next in DE:

The Chosen Disco imprint is associated with weekly parties out of Puro nightclub. Puro is not quite my scene—I generally prefer the grungier minimal clubs im Osten—but it’s a fun place nonetheless.

One thing I did buy: a coveted shirt from Wasted German Youth, purveyors of Berlin fashion, music, parties and general mayhem. Their parties are notoriously secretive and their shirts sell out almost as fast as they’re designed, but they apparently dug out a few more models of this particular shirt, coincidentally in a girls’ medium. Much more than I think I’d pay for any other T-shirt, but the allure of the difficult-to-obtain, plus the “Berlin Wasted Youth – was geht” printed on the back proved too much for me to resist.

Lastly, I snagged a copy of the Berlin poster for Fest van Cleef 2010, which I was lucky enough to attend while living in Berlin. A great number of awesome artists played, including Gisbert zu Knyphausen, Kettcar and Thees Uhlmann. I sadly had to leave before Kettcar, in order to finish a frenzy of packing before my trip to Tokyo the next morning—but I caught the opening bands and a great performance by Gisbert. Good times!