been In Berlin for a couple of days...didnt see much on the first two except that the city has been CRUSHED with graffitti...kindergartens and all kinds of everything is tagged all to fuck...some hippie jams by the river where some abandoned boats are now ancient dead art barges with faded pieces and smashed windows...the amazing thing about this place is that the city and all its inhabitants are completely at ease with the decay...fallen and eroded statues and buildings...old abandoned boats and warehouses...tagged and in disrepair...and yet still people are everywhere having a good time...its an amazing juxtaposition...partying in neighborhoods , drinking in the streets blocking off roads and celebrating! the landscape seems to have no effect at all on the youth and energy of what is taking place...and there are old people everywhere living and riding bikes...not staying inside praying to their air conditioners and televisions...its incredible...and I have seen Giant pieces by Blu and Os gemeos as well as Miss Van and a shit load of other more abstract street art...the Tacheles art squat was totally and completely mind blowing...it is A giant beautiful abandoned building that has been occupied by artists since the wall came down..It is like a postapocalyptic art world beach oasis where the capitalist tyranny has fallen and we can all be total art freaks and relax goddammit!!..I met an artist in there who moved there and just paints all day in this tore up room...His name is Kurihara Takuya and you should check out his stuff at myspace.com/kurihara   seriously he should be killing galleries everywhere...thats kind of the thing about these art squats is that they allow for a kind of natural zeitgeist of rare happenings...that they are in this impossible place making impossible things happen...its humbling to see and feel...if you come to berlin check this place out....In Amsterdam Kristie and i stayed our last two four days at this amazing caravan commune called Lucky Lake...there were giant animal sculptures around the whole premise as well as the most amazing staff of people I have ever met...I seriously did not want to leave...We kayaked throught the canals of the farmlands and saw what beautiful and rare things Amsterdam holds besides just awesome weed and peep shows...It left an incredible sense of friendship and kindness that I hope to have again someday...I really miss them and if you ever go to Amsterdam go stay at Lucky Lake because there is no place like it in the world...and dont forget to visit Hortus Botanicus!! one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world!!! Butterfly Farm yo!!

Belgium found us making fast friends with people in Brugge as we went to see the Salvador Dali exhibit where there were at least a 1000 drawings and paintings as well as some incredible sculptures...in Ghent we had some beers and bought some cans from the dudes at city kings and went and painted some lizard warriors on the legal walls...it was awesome just spraying the shit out of this wall with all these little kids there just practicing their hand styles...it was really great to see them getting an early start....In brussels we cruised by the Comic book and strip museum which was amazing...Belgium is super famous for its comic art andf cartoons..yeah they invented the smurfs..it was great and the government actually gives money to fund independent comics and books...thats how much they appreciate the genre! Man we need to adopt some of these kinds of appreciations in our government...give people like Mike Diana a little love sometime!...Stopped by the Alice gallery to see Maya Hayuks show...a path for the light...it was really really great of course and it had a trippy color/ time tunnel entrance to get you ready for the vibe of the installation...really cool...then we went to see the Bad Moon rising 4 exhibition which was really creepy and multi faceted in its genres...in the basement there was an incredibly disturbing/ beautiful video of people living in their normal lives but everything was on fire...them, their food, their children...everything and they were just existing that way...burning together...the show has been banned in the united states because it was originally a show inspired by a mass murder in the south...the first Bad Moon Rising had some of the drawings of the murderer...and their was much debate over what art should be recognised publicly...although i believe that the show was more trying to focus on the social elements that drive people away from personal identity...like religion, sex, prescribed drugs, fear and longing...we also saw an otherworldly installation at the center for contemporary art which will be closing down soon for lack of funding...which is weird that they would be given a lack of funding because the woman running it had been doing so on a shoe string for years...maybe being able to do something amazing for very little money makes other museums nervous?....and the coolest little spot was called Veals and Geeks...a rad little book and record store that had free 80s video games that you could play for free...they had the most amazing alternative graphic books and comics...you could tell Stan the owner really took pride in his merchandise selection!! a man with integrity!!!

London!...stopped by the upper playground shop for a bit, went to see a powerful photography show of beat generation movement times at the idea generation gallery...all those cats...and images of very powerful protests...John "hoppy" hopkins photos of ginsburg and william burrows and kerouac...really great stuff...also went to Bwana Spoons book release at concrete hermit!!!That was great to see him and his family...we hung out and had a pencil gight!! Concrete Hermit is really cool...a great place to pick up alternate comics and shirts..as well as awesome paintings...check em out...the whole part of that town was really alive with art and people ...Club Row and Bethnal Green!! thats the spot!!!Londons East end!!...There is a toy shop on Wands worth road that is the greatest toy shop in the world...i cant remember the name but every toy you had that you lost??? yeah its there with everybody elses...slimers and all that shit....you know we Had to get on the train and see Stone Henge! it was really magical with all the tourists there...HaHA but seriously i felt like Harry Potter for five seconds...saw some castle ruins in salisbury...had some brews and went back to London....also MJ died and we felt all weird and sad....noticed that people started listening to his music again.....

Scotland!! Edinburgh totally rules its like being in a star wars movie because of the buildings...saw a super awesome doom band there called Jackal HeaDED gUARD OF THE dEAD:::I dont know why the keyboard just did that but it was kind of awesome....Traveled 500 miles around the island and cruised across Loch Ness!!!went underneath the city of Edinburgh where a bunch of people burned to death...found out that there was a big ass lake by the town but they filled it up with dead plague victims...gross and sad...saw some really amazing real folk protest music by old scottish people in a small bar...it was really cool and humbling to see...went to a place called the Forest which is a volunteer run co op where you can eat amazing vegan food and see the best music i highly recommend you go here if ever in edinburgh...Glasgow was really fun because we made friends with the staff there as well we just drank with them while they blasted really crappy boy band music...man they fuckin love that shit!!! the manager was this scottish dude who is obsessed with american Gangsta rap...he asked me if gangster rappers would think he was cool...he was being very serious and i told him that sure they would like him...to shoot at...and if he didnt die then they would have him sort the seeds out of their weed...he was sad....he kept calling every one bitch in his best scottish gangster rap accent...it ruled...The stand out art experience in scotland was at the Glasgow museum of contemporary art! A gay, lesbian and trans gender exhibit about different struggles and perspectives of existing in a hetero normative society...it was very powerful and Kristie cried a little bit because it was so courageous and vulnerable...truly inspiring!

Ireland....looks like how you see it on tv...totally green and beautiful....went to the Cliffs of Moher...mind blowing...kind of like being in the clash of the titans for a little while...went to an ancient cave that was only discovered in the 70s...threw up in there and held my puke in a bag for the tour of it...i threw up alot....saw some killer metal bands at a club that had crappy paintings of the red hot chile peppers on the wall...that ruled and they also had motorcycles peeling out but nobody riding them...also awesome!....thats a small rundown of the trip in revers...sorry if you fell asleep or thought i was going to write about playing with my weiner in public...Cheers!! skinner