http://virb.com/thebenjamen Virb 2.0 (@thebenjamen) en http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/399567 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:45:19 -0800 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/399567 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/399566 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:42:53 -0800 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/399566 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/399563 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:40:24 -0800 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/399563 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328511 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:25:19 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328511 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328510 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:24:38 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328510 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328508 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:23:57 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328508 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328507 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:23:04 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/328507 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/216712 Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:37:37 -0800 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/216712 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/216711 Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:36:22 -0800 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/216711 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/130130 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:52:21 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/130130 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94736 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:09:31 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94736 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94716 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 10:20:55 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94716 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94689 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 09:48:01 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94689 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94645 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:27:11 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94645 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94593 Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:08:00 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/audio/94593 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/videos/1739522 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:26:20 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/videos/1739522 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/videos/1739521 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:19:14 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/videos/1739521 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/posts/text/399185
i had a confetti accident.


That stuff is dangerous!


Daniela cringes as Juliane lights a tischfeuerwerk. Note the fondue pot on the table. Yeah, we thugg like dat.


the resultant explosion drastically affected the functionality of the Juliane's noisemaker.


Karin attempted gives the noisemaker a whirl, but to no avail.


This next photograph really captures New Year's Eve in Berlin--lots of shit exploded all over the place and then there was a huge mess. Seriously, it's like a war zone out there. People were lobbing fireworks toward us from their balconies as we made our way to a larger party...


When i woke up the next day, the sky was attempting to cover all traces of the previous year. Yay!


This is the first meal of the year. Not that exciting, but i like the way those eggs are lined up.

]]> Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:00:24 -0800 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/posts/text/399185 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/posts/text/287874
so, after my brother finished his big-ass tour through Europe, he elected to spend almost half of his precious few vacation days chilling out with me in Berlin.



Awesome right?

Outside of the few hours we hung out in Erfurt, i hadn't really seen him in six months, so i was pretty stoked to see him!



i kept forgetting to charge my camera battery, so there's not a ton of photos, but here are a few highlights of our adventures!

Having eaten almost one D]]> Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:29:11 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/posts/text/287874 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/posts/text/257719

On top of that slight exaggeration, there was REAL awesomeness. For the first time ever, my immediate family gathered...IN GERMANY. Here's a picture of the other three, chillin' in front of a gate at a crazy fort/waterwell in Erfurt. My dad pointed out that we were all wearing jeans and black shirts about four times, because he thought we weren't really paying attention to him. We probably weren't.


The impetus for this epic gathering was a Zappa Plays Zappa concert, for which my brother is a keyboardist/trumpeter/melodica-ist. My parents currently reside in Spain, so they made the trip over to visit and see the show (i haven't seen them since May!). This was just another day at the office for my brother, but for me, it was a ripping-rad concert that turned my ballsack into jello exactly six times. Here's the band taking a bow at the end of the show to the vigorous applause of a medium-sized audience (500?). Sorry for the crappy picture--that's just what happens sometimes.


After the show, my dad and brother were ready to party.



So, we befriended some locals who were at the concert and they took us to a great pub in Erfurt where the ceiling was lined with old glam-rock records and Bee-Gees lunchboxes. Here's a large portion of the Zappa Plays Zappa band with their new friends Andre (back right) and Andre's dad (back left). Sorry about somebody else's arm in the shot--we were all drinking a fair amount of beer. ;)



There was a huge poster of a Frank Zappa crappa on the door to the bar's toilet. It was rather humorous, seeing as we'd just come from a two and a half hour concert of Frank Zappa's music... Anyway, here's my brother miming dropping a deuce.



My parents and I came back to Berlin this morning (my brother is off to finish the tour, but he'll be back for more hijinks on the 15th!). We saw some sights. Here's a picture of my mom and dad contemplating the Berlin wall.


We all had a really hard time fathoming what Berlin life must have been like before the country unified and the wall came down. My dad eventually came to this conclusion.



My parents are leaving tomorrow, and i'm sad to see them go. I'm really glad we got to spend this time together--it was truly a very special week for me--i just hope they had as much fun as i did!

adios amigos!]]> Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:13:04 -0700 http://virb.com/thebenjamen/posts/text/257719