Finally – I've went and seen some concerts again! Was about time. So far I hadn't had the patience to look into the local scene after having been spoiled with a great selection of gigs almost every week in Oslo. Last weekend though, good friend Falko and his Safarisounds played a gig with Toni L and Torch at Heidelberger Herbst. One hell of a party, with the crowd entering the stage for the last two songs. Always good stuff even though Funk isn't exactly my thing.

Yesterday then, my flatmate and I went on a very spontaneous trip to Frankfurt in order to see Soap&Skin at Mousonturm. I had never heard of her before even though she's been so very much hyped for over half a year now. Also yesterday I only had the time to listen to half of one of her songs before we left. But damn it was worth it. Good voice, great piano play, very unique style – overall awe-inspiring atmosphere and performance. I've never really heard anything like it, even though the music of Deaf Center or Svarte Greiner might show similarities in their very dark, melancholic approach. Despite the very short set of only 45 minutes, a definite must should she ever be in your area.

I wanna ride this North Shore trail. I'd probably break every frigging' bone in my body, but goddamn, I wanna ride this trail so baaaad!

Last weekend, good friend Martin finally redeemed a two year old birthday coupon for a day at a local high ropes course. So on a beautiful late summer Sunday three guys and three girls made their way to Betzenstein for what turned out to be a pretty cool experience – with a couple of exceptions.

The park was quite pretty with the sunlight playing through the leaves and the platforms, giving the whole thing sort of a Neverland-ish atmosphere. We arrived at a pretty busy time and killed an hour chilling on a nearby meadow (Martin and me trying to sleep off our hangover from Heilbronn) before listening to the safety instructions. After those the girls went off to do the beginners course while the boys started off with an intermediate one (harrharr...).

I have to say that I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but in 10-12m above the ground with nothing else holding you but two ropes... well, you get the point. After two courses, Martin and Julia took another intermediate trail while Tim – who goes climbing almost every week – urged me to take the expert course. Frankly, I wasn't too keen on doing so, only wearing sneakers and having seen how difficult it would get. But then again I didn't wanna let him go by himself and I did feel a certain inner temptation, so we went. Bad Idea.

Already having been scared shitless at the second obstacle, there was one about halfway through the course where I was this close to losing it. It was shaky as hell, I had major difficulties keeping balance, I was slowly losing strength in my left arm (which was carrying all my weight at that time) and had huge troubles with the constant reattaching of the carabiners to the different ropes. I was so fucking panicky I kept shouting horrible insults (motherf***** being one of the lighter ones) at Tim – who had already passed it – for the entire time it took me to get through the obstacle, which was all in all maybe 10 minutes. During my struggle and verbal abuse of Tim I caught the glimpse of a kid doing a course one level below us. He stared at me in utter disbelief probably thinking "If you can't handle it, don't go up there, dumbass!". God, he was so right.

Anyways, half an hour later we were one safe ground again. I had lost 2 pounds of sweat, the ability to speak and my sense of humor. In retrospect it was cool to have 'taken on the challenge' but I could just as well have done without. Still a really cool day. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take our cameras up so you'll have to settle for these three shots from below.

Darmstadt: diploma research.
Cologne: meeting a friend from back in the States after over 11 years and a farewell party gone slightly wrong.
Darmstadt: preparing for diploma workshop.
Stuttgart: diploma workshop, lots of work and wonderful dinner.
Heilbronn: exhausted, drunk at Weindorf and late night pasta feed.
Erlangen: high rope course, beer garden and chilling.
Darmstadt: dazed and confused.

Fuck, I got so much shit to sort out! More updates soon though.