'Go Have Fun'

here is our latest track.....lyrics are the speech Bush gave to Obama when he got elected in 2008. Go Have Fun

Neutrinos in Berlin final day

I miss the sounds. The loud chirping sparrows, the turkish music swirling from car-radios waiting at the traffic lights on the junction at Silbersteinstrasse and Hermannstrasse. I miss the screech of car tyres around that same junction in anticipation of a sugar hit from the Burger King Drive-Thru next door to our block of apartments. I miss the sound of our bare feet on laminate floors padding about making coffee, opening doors and windows, amplifying all the sounds from outside. The shower was good..set by a window which you could open the top half of wide, like a door and stare at the sky and the swifts hurling themselves around in thermal loops. I miss the anticipation of who we will met today. Monday, yesterday was our final day,with our first appointment being at the British Embassy, passports, security checks, gates, air locks.. then waiting in the foyer next to a photograph of the Queen. Banners saying, Shopping is Great Britain, Knowledge is Great Britian, Creative is Great Britian..... shopping?? Hmmm Miriam our contact appears and she is German and small and young, she shows us around the public area. The building is very 1990s in it's appearance. We drink water and share our purpose for meeting. Soon the tiny woman is on fire with ideas of how this weighty institution steeped in history and bureaucratic sheets and blankets can assist. Let's see what happens there. Last task was to deliver a Butcher book to Funkhaus, its place of origin. We knew it would be unceremonious as the manager of the building, our point of contact, Susanne Graef was on leave. We buzzed over on the train, had to memorize a page from the book of an impression of Jon at the correct tram stop. In the summer heat the journey was easy and calm, we had only visited in deepest winter and the memory of the journey is shrouded in effort! There it stood, smaller than I remember. We went in, laughed at the familiarity, gave the book to a red faced man and said goodbye. As we walked around the outside of the building to the exit, we saw an open door, couldn't resist but go in, for one last taste...and found the Milch Bar open. In 2008 it was moth-balled. It has a red sparkly ceiling and genuine 1950s decor, nice to see it back in working order.We drank very milky coffee.

I saw a man from the previous night, he had played at Ausland. We bumped into him again at the tram stop and chatted. He was going to London the following day and Sal was invited to his gig at Cafe Oto. It feels easy to meet people here, you see them again and again, there is a community. We leave Berlin. Thinking about other cities of Germany, Berlin feels like the estranged child of the family, who has had a different upbringing to the rest. Other stuff happened to it and so it remains unique in character, Berlin is unlike anywhere else.

Neutrinos gone to Ausland

Went to Ausland....an avant guard music venue. Free jazz was great, Cactus Truck from Holland, they began with an explosion of noise which continued at the same level. I wanted to laugh really loudly and watched the gig with a new look of my face of being on the verge of pissing myself with laughter, it was bloody brilliant. It was such explosive energy and so so funny. I can't say I'm naturally drawn to music that makes me laugh, but this was ace and a had no idea that free jazz was hilarious. Squeeely-bonk -tastic. But alas even the avant guard have complaining neighbours.....grrrr! We walked in the grid of roads called the Schillerketz, found a great burger bar, Schiller burger, onto a bar round the corner And chatted and laughed a lot. They show silent films in the bar and its accompanied by someone on the grand piano. We have established our bearings for this part of the city around Hermannstrasse, Neukölln . On the main drag good cheap Turkish food and sports bars galore, on the roads parallel quirky bars and artsy crowd. We chatted about the twilight zone. We have enjoyed the shape of our time here, intense mid week start, managing to relax for a couple of days and final bit of business tomorrow. A visit to the British Embassy and leaving a book at the Funkhaus.

Cementing friendships

Just spent an hour with Gerhard Steinke. We swapped books about the Funkhaus, He has opinions on so much, very refreshing ..... "Politics have no ears" he said We signed his Butcher book, and to us in his book he wrote... "To my wonderful friends and excellent artists Neutrinos, With warmest thanks, also for their splendid idea to create a book with their impressions of pictures, sounds, atmospheres, politics and friends of Berlin acoustic splendid Funkhaus, cordially friends forever , yours Gerhard Steinke, June 23 2013" Arrived back from an afternoon in the park with our producer friend Natalie, her lighting designer husband Enzo and their tiny daughter Juliette. We shared a BBQ and time with each other. Mark neutrino has a new friend in juliette! Pics to follow. We walked the line of some if the wall, from a satellite photo you can see the difference in street lighting between the former east and west, east is yellow, west white.... The street lamps use different bulbs and the lampposts have not been changed. Tonight we are off to Ausland to check out the space and listen to freeeee jazzzzz, hook up with a drummer and play-write we met last night and our beautiful neuroscience friend Lorelei.

Neutrinos in Berlin day 4

We woke, we spoke, we discovered a way of working. Not hiring a derelict- crumble- chic venue, to lead Berliners around familiar territory, feeding them their own cultural references back. If we want to meet people, make connections with this city, we must invite them over, to talk, to share food, to share stories, to play music. Lets leave behind the crumbling spaces and sit face to face. We are thinking the images in the book could become graffiti. I remember asking Luke Emery the etiquette of graffiti before we came to Berlin to go Butchering in 2008, what is illegal? Dos and don'ts. Went to Motto books sold Alexis the owner a book... We love his shop a lot. Talking of dos and don'ts Sal and I visited a photomat booth, very nice, 2€ for arty black n white pics, installed by two French artists.... Whilst waiting for the pics 4 huge lads in basketball type gear came over, "to chat " boxed us in, as we had a fence either side if us, no good escape. Sal chatted about London, yeah their cousin lived in SE 17, Sal said oh, Wimbledon.... Sniggering at suburbia... I was negotiating our escape... Which in fact was easy just slip past em, but hadn't felt threatened like that before in a long while.... Grrrr Tonight we will meet friends from Norwich and Berlin, introduce them to each other and we will go and watch Luke Abbott and Dan Tombs at a club in Kreuzberg. Yar!

Three books sold!

We sold three books to König bookshop this morning. Not much emotion in the man's face, the transaction was swift, I don't know how to read German! Found a very special music shop , stocked full of records made by visual artists. A collection and shop owned and run by Ursula Block. We met a lovely chap called Dieter, who chatted about the collection and was playing some Henning Christianson. Squeaky-bonk loveliness. We met with Enzo last night, he works here in Berlin as a lighting and sound tech, we chatted about Urban Spree venue.... He said oh, we call it Media Spree, MTV have an office there and it is selling derelict chic back to the youth. The spirit of Berlin is bring bought, sanitised and sold back to the tourists. we talk a lot about authenticity, and why the hell we are here? It is positive... We realise that animating a building and leafing people through an immersive show is old hat here and probably in the uk too. So what is next!!!! Ha ha, that's the exciting bit. If I could post an Image here I would but my wee phone can't handle it!! More thoughts soon from our Neukölln home, very trendy area btw, if you coming to Berlin soon, probably too gentrified in 8 months time!

Neutrinos in Berlin day 2

The washing up liquid smells of peach like an early scratch and sniff book of mine, I am enjoying washing up. I like the smell of the ubahn, burnt/electrical/rubber mmmm. The weather broke last night with splitting cracks and torrential rain, the wind pushed everything horizontal, the Mosquitos that had feasted on us disappeared and the 'super storm' arrived. Danny, who used to work at the playhouse bar in Norwich and now lives in Berlin, said everything is prefixed with 'super' here. He lives with another ex-playhouse bar wonder called Lorelei, she is a Neuroscientist working just north of Berlin. She was telling us how her and her work colleagues were trying to hang out in the MRI scanning room, because that was the coolest place.... all in a days work. So the weather dropped by 13 degrees in a few hours last night and we have our thinking brains again at 20 degrees. Yesterday we went to an exciting venue/gallery called Urban Spree. Whilst Sal and I were talking to the venue owner who was grilling us about romanticising DDR buildings and the Cold War and did we know what we were talking about, Jon and Mark were outside talking about the romanticising of derelict buildings and the currency within creating a venue that looked like an apocalyptic aftermath, to satisfy the wonder of visitors to Berlin. Who was being authentic here. The venue owner said that he used to be a top finance PA in France. Later comparing notes, we wondered about what was real. Sal and I had a definite nod to the possibility of doing a show at Urban Spree, we will go to a gig there tonight and see what it feels like after dark. On the first night just after I emailed, we walked to Kienitzer strasse, to peer through the fence at Tempelhof airport, which has been closed for 5 years. No Entry. When we got close we saw a gate was open, we descended some steps and walked into a dreamlike landscape of an airfield inhabited by people happily picnicking, sitting with folks drinking, allotments , tipies, folks cycling around really fast over the massive expanse that is Tempelhof. It was thrilling to see a site taken over by the people. On the ubahn the homeless sometimes ride all day, they are not bothered by authorities. We watched the casually dressed / undercover ticket inspectors at work, they are looking for those who haven't but can afford to pay. This city is not like a British city, the thrill is witnessing the differences and being amongst folks who think different. Sent from my iPhone

Neutrinos in Berlin day 1

Obama is in Berlin today and as luck would have it, we failed to Upload our latest track before we left Norwich, So, synchronicity settles here....the track is delivered today, to you, straight from Berlin. The lyrics are George Bush's speech/ message to Obama when Obama got elected back in 2008.... It's called 'go have fun' and as you can imagine I squeezed past security, sat on Barak's knee and sang an a cappella version to him, making a lot of the music with slaps and mouth noises. He said thank-you and promptly had me arrested and I'm emailing from from a very neat and beautifully tiled cell. Thank god for wi-fi. Fortunately I had completed my meetings at several bookshop' s today. Our favourite was at a shop called Do You Read Me. When I hear that phrase I'm in a complex song with lots of blips and crackles and screamy vocals sharing a duet with Karen O. It's a great shop and they will stock our Butcher of Common Sense Book when we return with our show in the winter. Next went to meet the top art book dealer in Berlin, and it was a short sharp lesson in punching above ones weight! Barbara Wein is a beautiful, extraordinary and powerful book dealer who listened to our story, looked at our book and said, but I don't know you and nor do my clients..... Fair enough! We pretty much said fair enough, but before we left, she agreed to take one book, as long as we collected it if it didn't sell! Reminds me if what Robert Fripp said .... Look to the rung above you for help, don't aim too high, you have no connection... Yes yes I get it! We are strangers here, we have a lot of work ahead before we can become part of this city's fabric, before we can put on a show. Just have to add, because its British to talk weather, that it is 33 degrees and we have melting brains. More soon, enjoy the track. Karen Neutrino Go Have Fun mix 2 - SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/jonneutrino/go-have-fun-mix-2?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email

Fear

Here it is again. Fear breeds in a good imagination. In my head it likes the morning, the first thoughts, nice and fresh. Creeps in and starts to multiply. I have been painting wild and beautiful head paintings of an empty Puppet Theatre on July 12th and a windy Berlin with shaking heads, no I can't help you. Your book is boring and pointless. So what if the image is a different picture? What if I make a different picture of the Puppet Theatre and Berlin. I watched a Ted Lecture on Fear and this was the premise....a vivid imagination can make fear, so recognise it and change it. I have been practicing making new images in my head of forthcoming events, supplanting the easy to find 'failure images' with relaxed enjoyable engaged in the task images. It feels odd, this is not what I normally do, but it feels great. If one can remove the noise and energy of the failure images then it leaves more head space to have ideas, inspiration and thought connections. If you do the work, then things are more likely to be a success. If you sit imagining the worst having a panic, then , well it's pretty obvious. So rather than paralyse oneself with fear...I'm gonna do the work. Take a deep breath and get on with it.