Standing by the wall . . .

Dogon at the Berlin Wall

Live from Berlin, its Wednesday morning . . .   not jet lag, just strange sleep hours. Nodding off every few hours on trains, 26 hours travel to get here, and pedalling 15k around Berlin -- we are lucky. The world is collapsing and we are in it. We met a young Syrian refugee on the train from Frankfurt and I realized I should get out more. He was the kindest person I have encountered in days and he shared his wifi with us so I could try and navigate to our destination. Here on the wall is a long mural, WaronWall dedicated to telling the story of the Syrian war, using the attention the Wall receives to focus on other victims of separation.

Berliners seem extremely chilled out and sit between the Wall and the River Spree gently sipping cool beverages in groups of two and three. Some Irish musicians perform a Silent Disco, there must be strong rules about street music, it is otherwise very quiet on the streets, day and night - no public music going on.  The American election cycle seems far far away as does the collapse of Venezuela. But we are not simply tourists here, we are trying to exchange music and so, though no gig was settled, we have set up a Free Open Rehearsal and invited all our musician friends who are available to participate. So far there will be Shawn Casselle, American ex-pat songwriter, singer, guitarist and two Venezuelan musicians of some renown. Will you join us as well?