Chris' Blog

Bad Karma?

2007-10-11T04:32:00.001+02:00

My streak of bad luck since the beginning of this semester isn't over yet.
Yesterday night my new apartment got broken into while i was at work and my roommate was in the studio.
The thieves climbed in through our kitchen window over the fire escape and stole my roommates Laptop and digital camera, about 300 bucks in cash from my room, my ipod nano and my digital camera.
Luckily they didn't take hard drives, microphones, guitars and a lot of other stuff that was way more valuable than the stuff they took.
I am still trying to remember what bad things i could have done in the past to deserve such bad karma, but i haven't figured it out yet.
I'm also still fighting with the insurance company from my old apartment in order to get reimbursed for all my damages from the pipe burst in the old place.

Nonetheless this semester has been awesome so far and even though I'm constantly stressed and swamped with projects which isn't gonna change till christmas, I am having a lot of fun and enjoying all the time i get to spend in the studio recording and producing.

I honestly think I have suffered enough now and it can only get better from now on (that thought is oddly familiar though)

Write me an email or gimme a call/skype me!

Chris

Probably the worst week of my life

2007-09-12T05:00:00.001+02:00

After getting back to Boston and being ready for some major ass kicking this semester, the developments since Saturday have been more than horrible.
I moved to my new apartment on Saturday, which I was already worried about, because the place was a complete dump. I was pretty bummed out right after we moved in and things got worse and worse from there.
The apartment was in the basement (a really shady basement, like from a bad horror movie) and our windows gave us a beautiful view of the dumpster in the back alley behind our house.
In my room there was this constant noise of water running through the pipes in the ceiling and the rest of the apartment wasn't much better.
I was pretty pissed at myself for ever agreeing to rent that place, but I don't remember it looking that bad when we looked at it.
At that point I was already considering my options about moving back out of there as soon a possible and when I came back from the bathroom on Sunday and saw a big roach crawling over my bed, I knew I had to get the hell out of there.
I put on my shoes and just left imedately and ended up sleeping on the couch in my old apartment that I lived in over summer for the night.
I was wondering about how I would tell Wes that I couldn't bare living under those conditions and that I was gonna move out immediately and I really thought things couldn't get much worse, but boy was I wrong!
After 10 hours of classes and work I get out of school and check my voicemail and I have a message from Wes.
The noise of running water in the apartment had stopped but only because the pipe on the ceiling in my room burst and about 200 liters of drain water (I still don't know if it was shower and sink drains or even toilet drains) poured over everything I own.
My laptop, my guitars, my recording gear, all my clothes and all of my stuff is completely ruined and now I have to sue the building management to get reimbursed for everything.
I can safely say that yesterday was the worst day of my life and I am mad beyond any imagination.

At least I already found a new place to live and I will move again on the weekend.

I'm trying to stay positive and not get caught up in this too much since school is already kicking my ass and I have to find an artist, choose a song and produce a demo within the next 7 days.

I'll keep you updated on how the situation plays out.

Chris

It's about time!

2007-07-23T08:28:00.001+02:00

It has been entirely too long since I have posted on this blog and I wonder if anyone is still reading this but i will provide an update anyway.

Life in Boston has been going great and I still love going to school here. It only gets more and more interesting the further i get into it. The summer semester has been kind of stressful so far since we have to do the workload of a usual 16 week semester in 12 weeks and time just flies by like crazy. I haven't gotten a good night sleep in a while and it's only getting worse till the end, but I am trying to cope and get through it.
This semester hasn't provided me with any big recording projects but I have played guitar on a couple of Lenny's projects and they turned out great. In fall i finally get to do my first two major MP&E projects: A "Sound-a-like" in which i get to choose a song and have to replicate it exactly and a "Live to 2" with 2-track recording.
I'm glad that i finally moved out of the dorms and I am having a great time living off-campus being able to cook my own food again.
We have been playing a lot of poker at my place lately and I have been doing fairly well, even thought the last 3 weeks were a little rough.

At the moment I can't wait to go home to Munich and see everyone again. It's been way too long since i got to go out for a beer with the guys. I will be in Munich between 18.8 and 6.9 and I hope to see as many of you as I can while I'm there.

Hope to see you soon

Chris

Nothing like the smell of new electronics

2006-10-30T01:05:00.000+01:00

As always it's been way to long since my last update, but school has been a little stressful lately.
Midterm week is coming up and I don't even know where to start with all my work, but I think I'll survive somehow...

I bought a lot of new stuff in the last couple of weeks. I got a set of studio monitors, a midi controller keyboard and even a new guitar, so here are some pictures:

Back in Boston and ready to kick some ass!

2006-09-06T14:45:00.000+02:00

So I'm finally back in Boston since Monday afternoon and so far it's been great fun already.
I'm back at the same dorms, but in a different and much nicer room.
I got a new roommate, since Wes moved out of the dorms and found himself a place of his own.
His name is Neil and he's from California and plays the euphonium.
Here is a picture of my new room:
Yesterday night I went to see the Boston Red Sox play the Chicago White Sox at legendary Fenway Park (Thanks for the ticket Béckie!). My first ever Baseball game and I must say it was awsome.

Going Home

2006-05-14T15:33:00.000+02:00

The semester is finally over and I'm sitting on packed suitcases once again, ready to leave Boston and Berklee behind for the summer. The semester went great (even though I won't get my grades until next week or so) and I already can't wait to come back here in fall. But for now I looking forward to being home for the summer and seeing everybody again.
Thanks to all the guys here for a great semester. I'm gonna miss you, fools!
All you guys and girls back home: Don't even think about not being at "X" at 10pm monday night!
See you all tomorrow! (except for you Len, I think you are the only fool in the States that actually reads this ;), have a good summer buddy and kick some serious Berzerklee ass!)

Berklee, I'm Gonna Leave You.
I said Berklee, you know I'm gonna leave you.
I'll leave you when the summertime,
Leave you when the summer comes a-rollin'
Leave you when the summer comes along.
Berklee, I don't wanna leave you,
I ain't jokin', I got to ramble.

On that matter:
Have a great summer, everyone (I know I will) and I'll be back in september.

Chris

Summer plans

2006-03-31T02:16:00.000+02:00

Just a quick update for everyone that doens't know yet:
I finally made up my mind about my summer plans and I'm gonna be back in Munich for the summer after all. I'll be arriving on Monday 15.5.06 at 8.10 in the morning and I'm gonna stay in Munich till at least the middle of August.
I'm already looking forward to seeing all of you again.
See you soon and take care

Chris

Spring Break

2006-02-26T21:46:00.000+01:00

The first half of my first semester is officially over and I thought that would be a good time to give you all a quick update.
Last week I had my midterm exams in all my classes and it went pretty well.
The 2 month that I've been here now went by pretty fast and I loved every second of it.
Boston felt like home more or less from the first day I got here and college is great, too.
Berklee is the coolest place in the world! I totally love it here.
I met so many interesting people from all over the world and had some great geeky conversatoins about music. ;)
One of the highlights so far has been seeing George Carlin at Wang Theater a couple of weeks ago. He is just too damn funny!
Now I finally got a week off to chill and hang out which is pretty nice.
All together I'm having an absolutly great time here.

I miss you all, send me an email some time...

Chris

Time for some news

2006-02-16T03:30:00.000+01:00

Since I haven't been updating my blog for quite a while let me give you guys a quick newsflash about how things are going over here.
So far everything has been great.
College is still a lot of fun and I'm still getting to know cool people almost on a daily basis.
This place is just the way I hoped it would be. Lots and lots of talented musicians you can have geeky music conversations with (how do you subdivide 16/8 and fun stuff like that).
Great classes like my Ensemble where I get to play tunes by people like John Coltrane or Miles Davis with drums, piano, guitar and euphonium/trombone, or learning to sight-sing in my ear training class.
I even found a liquor store that sells Loewenbraeu and Hacker-Pschorr, which is kinda cool, but against all expectations you can find some half decent beers around here anyway.
The weather is pretty crazy here though. We had a huge blizzard on Sunday with about 50cm of snow in one day and today its 12 degrees again.
Last week I got to see the Boston Celtics play at "The Garden" stadium which was pretty nice, even though our seats were kinda lousy.
Yesterday night they had a "Valentine's Day Dinner" in the cafteria with chocolate fountains and fruit. I guess thats what you'd call "culture shock"O_o
I still haven't decided, if I'm gonna be going back to Munich for the summer, but chances are you might be seeing me again much sooner than expected.

Anyway... I miss you guys and girls. Have fun and drink a beer at X for me. ;)

Chris

Update

2006-01-29T23:26:00.000+01:00

Ok, time for another update:
The first week of classes is over and so far everything has been great.
Classes are fun (well most of them are ^^), my teachers are cool and I still meet new people every day.
I already earned my first 2 credits by testing out of "Introduction to Music Technology" and I was able to take a "Principles of Production for Musicians" course instead.
Still haven't seen very much of the city (didn't have time to go downtown yet), but I hope I get to walk around a bit next weekend.
The weather here is crazy sometimes, it's snowing one day, warm and sunny the next day.
I'm already planing how I'm gonna spend my summer, which appears to be a very tough decision, 'cause of the housing situation with the dorms and all.
I'll keep you updated on that, too

I miss you guys and girls

Chris

Classes start today

2006-01-23T17:09:00.000+01:00

Today is gonna be my first real day of college.
my first class today is "ear training 1" and i'm very excited to see what classes are gonna be like here at Berklee.
Alltogether i did ok on my placement auditions and other tests, so i'm satisfied with the classes i got.
Anyways, i'll talk to you guys later and tell you how everything went so far.

Wooooohhhhhoooooo!

2006-01-20T22:19:00.000+01:00

Finally my luggage made it's way back to me.
Now I've officially arrived in Boston!

Status Update

2006-01-19T18:17:00.000+01:00

ok finally got some time to tell you all about the dreadfull chaos that was/is my travel to boston
it all started in munich where my first flight was delayed because there was a snowstorm in frankfurt. when the weather in frankfurt finally got better, the weather in munich got worse and worse.
so when the plane finally took off to frankfurt at 11.30 (instead of 8.05) my connecting flight from frankfurt to boston was long gone.
so i arrived in frankfurt and me and some other guy that was travelling to boston went to the lufthansa counter where we found a nice 1.5 hour waiting line.
when we finally made it through that line, we were told that our only chance to get to boston that day would be to go to london and fly with british airways from there. so that's what we did.
so far, so good...from then on the rest of the trip was ok, if you don't count some minor issues ( like my guitar being checked for explosives O_o).
so my flight arrived in boston at 22.40 instead of 12.30...
but my luggage didn't!
so we waited around for like an hour or so and then we went to find someone from britsh airways to file a claim for lost luggage, but unfortunately every damn british airways employee inside logan international airport was already gone for the night!
yesterday it turned out that my luggage is still in london and i hope ill see it again in the next 1-2 days
i arrived at my dorm at 12.00 at night where i met my roommate Wes from arizona, who seems to be a pretty cool guy and so far we get along great.
the next morning i was left between having to go to the airport again, registering for classes, taking my guitar placement audition (which i could postpone, taking my core music assesment test (which i totally blew), picking up my laptop (which totally rocks), picking up my berklee ID card andso on...
today i had to take yet another english test and i just took my guitar auditions which went pretty well.
this afternoon i'm gonna go shopping for some stuff and i'll walk around a bit to take pictures of the dorm and other berklee buildings.

hope thats enough for now and i'll keep you updated if anything interesting happens!

till then...
chris

The Time Has Come

2006-01-17T05:32:00.000+01:00

It's time to go!

It's crunchtime

2006-01-08T16:05:00.000+01:00

Survived my farewell party with only a minor headache.
It's been a great night, thanks for coming everyone.
The days are starting to go faster and faster, so here's the official countdown:

9 days left and way to many things yet undone.

Happy New Year Everyone!

2005-12-31T17:26:00.000+01:00

Let There Be Blog

2005-12-29T00:09:00.000+01:00

Lets get this blog started