Style! It! Takes! - a Berlin subcultural fashion event, and now we´re in it!

You might remember this picture from last year, where Boris and I enjoyed being fabulous (and I burned my winter coat that very evening XD)

Check out that post!

The picture was taken at an awesome fashion event called Style! It! Takes!, organised by the lovely and beautiful Kersten Haines, who does Berlin a huge favor by organising an event where music, fashion and underground culture combine, to make something extraordinary.

The thing is, Boris and I got so excite because of this event we ended up being part of the performers of the upcoming event in 12 Juli.

We couldn´t agree more that this event was the highlight of last year: good music and beautiful people in a very large and comfortable venue, a fashion sure presenting something more than clothes and skinny models (there were trans models last time!) and visual performances and live bands as well!

The main thing that disappoints us in most parties is lacking those above written things. Most parties are just music (when the DJ is being even more important than the music itself) with the same old thing happening all over again.

At Style! It! Takes! this dosesn´t happen, since there are so many things going on! Kersten creates a great collaboration with musicians, performenrs and fashion designers to make things more interesting and refreshing for all of us.

I am very excited to take my part as a dancer/ performer in the upcoming event. I will make a small conceptual appearance at one of Boris´ songs with The Wings Of Desire (as I usually do, this time however less dancing and more creative ideas!) and as a sort of gogo dance at a show of the second live act, a synth punk/ techno musician from Argentina, Patokai.

Not only that but I will have the honour to wear a hand made dress from a local fashion designer, Vian, who makes very elegant outfits.

 

I will be wearing the dress first from the left. Picture taken from Kersten´s Style! It! Takes! Blog, there are other beautiful images of her clothes in this post.

This has challenged me to make a slightly different performance than usuall, since the dress is very elegant and the usual semi belly dance deahrock stuff won´t be appropriate this time. I hope someone will film the thing, but will give details soon enough!

There should be another collaboration in the second dancing act for me, when I will be wearing a head pieve made by Patokai´s wife, Yan Hats, which she should install (ooh sounds interesting) on my blonde backcombed head.

Check out YAN HATS

So if you´re a Berliner and want something different to enjoy that has fashion, music and subculture written all over it, come down to STYLE! IT! TAKES! # 5 - Summer Dream of Fashion, Performances & Music on the 12 of July!

And better be updated for more news and other talented designers and artists that will be a part of the event on Kersten´s Blog, the official blog of Style! It! Takes!

I am indeed very excited to finally give my heart to something creative at last!

N. Finsternis

The 100 Day Song Challenge - Days 23, 24, 25, 26

I thought I might continue this challenge for lack of free time for other posts.

Day 23: A song with no lyrics.

When Boris and I were approaching our 1 year anniversary, we were discovering a lot of progressive rock music together. One of my favorite bands till this day are King Crimson, who probably set quite a few prog. metal standards till this day (Opeth´s Michael Äkerfeldt confessed to steal a few melodies from them here and there), and though I haven´t been listening to them since I was 16, I still respect them beyond belief. This is a very cool instrumental song from an even cooler album:

King Crimson / Red

Day 24: A good 70's song.

Continuing the prog rock theme I have to mention Genesis here as well, since I was a huge fan of them at age 16. Though I´ve heard a total of 2 albums by the band, they were more than enough to rediscover each time. Plus all my geek friends at high school listened to prog rock, and it was hell of a good time discussing it with them, and I had a good friend who played the following song religiously on the piano to torment everyone else (that´s classical music faculty freaks for you!). Good high school memories!

Genesis / Firth of Fifth (1973)

Day 25: A song you would ask a DJ to play at a party.

Although I´ve mentioned another good 80s song in the 20th question, I can only think of songs from the 80s when it comes to a party. Though I still love dark electro and would love to attend an aggrotech party, when listening to this song by the Killing Joke it makes me want to dance like crazy! I´ve also made a stupid video about it, hehe.

Killing Joke / Eighties

Day 26: A good 60's song.

Here is another band that I´ve discovered along with Boris when we progressed chronologically with our musical taste. It is respectively fucked up that this kind of music was made/ produced in 1967, and it´s purely iconic nowadays and is on such a higher level than most modern musical pieces. One of those albums where you ask yourself, how the hell was this made at that time in history??
I have returned to listen to The Velvet Underground a few days ago and marvel at how intense they are!

The Velvet Underground / Venus In Furs (1967)

I am now resting this weekend after loads of wine and happy time with friends, but will treat myself for an 80s party today to dance the stress away!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

N. Finsternis

Etsy Review: ilovelotus and Pandoraalina

Pretty much a month late with this post, but I´ve wanted to share my so far good experience with Etsy.

So in May I´ve ordered 2 things from 2 different Etsy buyers.
Firsty was this moon necklace from Pandoraalina:

And second was a clear quartz pendant from ilovelotus:

I ordered both pretty much on the same day, and was very surprised that they´ve arrived like a week and a half later!! I wasn´t expecting shipping to be so fast, especially when one came from Utah, US and the other from Indonesia.

Both pieces look beautiful, the moon necklace is absolutely gorgeous and is exactly the right size.
I found the quartz pendant to be smaller than expected, but you don´t need crystals to be huge in order for them to work, plus I´ve assured with ilovelotus before purchase that the crystals didn´t come from China (if so, they are probably fake. Don´t buy crystals from China). The pendant came with a string to tie around your neck, and instruction on how to do a fishermen´s tie! Thanks, now I know! :D

Here are some pics, though you´ve probably noticed me wearing the moon necklace in a couple of photos by now ;)

I´ve noticed that Etsy is far more reliable than Ebay, and it felt like the buyers actually take care for customers and purchases, which for me buying first time ever something online was very important.
I am dying to order some patches and other things, but I will probably do it next month after, get ready, I´ll MOVE to a 2 room apartment that we´ve received with Boris from the Student´s committee!!!
I am so excited to finally move to a place of our own, after living a year and a half in flatshares I can only say, good riddance! I feel like we´ve really earned the place with all our pain and suffering for far. But that´s why life is worth it, isn´t it?

Hope you are having a wonderful beginning of the weekend! I am bound to a shitload of homework for another 2 weeks, and after that (and I am praying so) I will have a while to breath before another wave of complete disastrous stress will hit me, just like it has been these past couple of weeks.

N. Finsternis

Carnival of Subcultures

We had a blast yesterday at the infamous squat Köpi, where a little alternative DIY fest "Carnival of Subcultures" was held (while a Carnival of Cultures in the center of the city took place).
Boris played with Totenwald and we all enjoyed free food and drinks afterwards, saw some crazy monster bicycle show and just hung out to (not to my taste) punk music that was generally fun.
Linking this to the previous post, we´ve managed to have a little festival of our own ;)

The best part of the whole event was the random wasted guys we saw on occasions, and those little surprising things like a dog on the stage:

The monster bike show was the best part! There is a whole crew of these people customizing and diy-ing their own bicycles. They were doing a battle all together- until the last bike stood standing! It was hilarious. Boris and I agreed that the´re all looked like post apocalyptic bikers, in a time where technology has been destroyed after a massive nuclear war, and people were forced to use bicycles as the only way of transportation, riding in gangs to protect themselves from other savages like themselves. Sounds like a pretty good scenario for a sci-fi fiction, you are welcome to use it if you like XD

In the background of the bike show there was a some sort of musician playing what seemed like a disintegrated electric guitar on a table, which he was hitting with a drum stick, and with the other hand hitting a (real) drum. It was quite the noise he was making, it sounded like some Einstürzende Neubauten music, which was awesome! It really felt like doomsday.

There were some nice stands of patches and shirts, and I´ve managed to find some nice finds there:

 The shirt would sure be embarrassingly amusing XD

We hung out with friends all day, drunk a few beers and I smoked a bit (shh, don´t tell!).
We were about to go home when this happened:

I had way too much fun with this crane...

Hope you are having a fucked up weekend as well! Finished with my 5 page essay at last I am going to continue to other homework.

N. Finsternis

The WGT tragedy and why I should calm the fuck down

Guess who is not going to the WGT despite at last living at the coutry where it´s held?

Well me, and I´ve been kranky to Boris sicne last year for not going, and this year again. The thing is, there are an (not) equal amount of reasong why I would and wouldn´t go, and in this post I spill out the torture between both.

Why I want to go the WGT:

1. I´ve suffered from intolerance and subcultural unawareness enough in Israel and WGT has been a dream since my babybat years.
2. I want to see cool and historical goth bands, see Leipzig painted black and enjoy the atmosphere of everyone together, one big gothic subculture!
3. I want to dress up the fancient I can imagine and walk the streets and be photographed and look fabulous more than anyone else there!

Why I don´t want to go to the WGT:

1. I am a student and should be focusing on my studies (especially now in the middle of the semester craze) and spare cashe whenever I can.
2. I don´t like the lineup almost each year, and why pay so much money to see like 2 of 200 bands?
3. In comparison to Israel, each weekend in Berlin is like WGT for me, and there is enough to do in Berlin anyways, especially in Summer.
4. Boris has promised me that one day he will play at the WGT and we will visit there with a good fat VIP like fucking kings!
5. WGT is each year anyway, it won´t be an open scar in my heart not to go another year.

Or would it? I´ve been in deny, doubt and over-persuation ever since my Israeli friends on FB starter to post here and there that they are going (like half a year ago) and others who popped for a visit in Berlin wrote me for a meet up (which I will happily do of course!).
And on the other hand, the reckless snob in me laughs silently at the poor sould from my homeland, for suffering the country´s mentality so badly they had to take it out yearly in some festival, only to return to their homes angain and envy how amazing it was in the Germany of their dreams.
But on the othe other hand, I marvel at how much the festival is magickal, how beautiful everyone is, how amazing it is that something like that could be held each year since the 90s! And since it was like the main "goth goal" for me as a babybat (and at this point I am even embarrassed to admit it), that going to the WGT even meant crossing the "being goth" task from the "gothic to do list" in my childish mind. There, you went to the WGT, you are now officially goth, wear it with pride....
Or some nonesene of the sort...

But looking at the people I know who are going, either this year on often, it makes me wonder that it´s just a festival, where you give money and consum. Either that or any other idiot can go to the WGT, call himself goth, as well as that same idiot can walk to the most expensive goth store nearby, buy a bunch of dark clothes and there you have it- he is a goth!
It is about the music still, but why should I torture my pour soul thinking I need a confirmation in being goth, or must visit the festival to prove something, even maybe not to myself?

It´s true that living in Israel and dreaming about the WGT is one thing, but living in Germany and looking to your left, realizing there´s some festival that´s going on and you are currently busy with approx. 1000 other tasks is another thing. Not to mention it kills me to even think of planning something like that in advance: buying a ticket a year before, booking a hostel and preping all my god damn diy achievements for a week of showing off (but who am I kidding, I love showing off!).
It is like with Wacken- people buy a ticket without even knowing what bands would play. So is it really all about the music?

I am probably making a very patheric impression right now trying to convince myself (and you) not to go, when I can feel the envy rising in me for everyone who does. It´s just... something deep inside me says I should wait, that there will be a dozen more other WGTs where I could go and when I will, I will bring so much money with me I won´t be chewing on my fingernails for spending it. And something else tells me that you know what, maybe Boris will bring us to the festival one day, maybe in the near future, and that sets hopes in me for something else; for something that is far more bigger than buying a ticket with the money you owned, but something greater, a huge step perhaps, a step for one small individual in the subculture, in the big black mass that we call goth.

Hope the people that are going will have fun though, I do wish the best for everyone.

N. Finsternis

How we went to see Lee Scratch Perry +picture heavy+

Having a day out in the city with a picnic by the river, of course!

Boris and I have decided to spent the entire day outdoors and enjoy the wonderful weather. We packed sandwiches and a juice + vodka mix and went to sit near the Dome and museum area on the grass by the river. 

We are absolutely in love with the center of the city, the museum island, Alexanderplatz etc etc. despite the numerous times we´ve been walking there it always looks so beautiful and magical to us, urban but not cold. It makes us feel very happy and free when we walk the usual sightseeing places. I just can´t explain why!

This was my outfit and face of the day:

 Bleached my roots since a week, last time was 2 months ago!
Plus my Etsy orders have arrived (moon necklace + another one that I am not wearing here) and I will do a review on them!

bought this skirt from H&M last week. It´s exactly the "simple mini basic but interestingly high waist to all styles manageable" skirt I needed!

Boris having fun with a peach.

Fun Fact: the upper right picture is the only picture of us kissing, ever! In 7 years of relationship we actually have never took a kissing picture, because we thought it was lame. I actually really love this one XD

Some more together pics, we have so few of these! And you can see my tooth in this one, haha!

By now you have probably figured out that there are no pics from Perry´s concert. But the gig was really cool, Lee Scratch Perry is either somewhere in the the clouds of his mind or he is just trolling us all the way... I was a bit disappointed that he didn´t sing his songs with the actual lyrics but mumbled random synonyms (as he always does) and the only way I could recognize a song was by the band who accompanied him. But critic aside, Perry was good live and is very spiritual and Jah preaching live ;)  I was unfortunately very tired the entire time and the venue was packed, so I had to sit outside a couple of songs to breath some fresh air...

By the way, guess who stole a poster from the show? 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

N. Finsternis