sites/randogoth.com/content/beneath-the-747.md

Title: beneath the 747
Category: GONZO
Date: 2012-12-28 18:31
Slug: beneath-the-747
Tags: gonzo, english, speyer
Thumb: /library/speyer1.jpg

*report about my 36 hours trip to speyer. all names are fictional, all
actions and observations exaggerated, rude, biased or simply not true.*

it was after a full week of family gatherings, round birthday
celebrations, the usual social christmas hell, annoyed relatives,
annoying relatives and other relatively annoying days in my hometown
that i decided i really needed a break from this atmosphere so i
wouldn't turn insane or into a serial killer.

egon, a friend of mine whom i had met around a year ago, filmmaker,
bohemian, bon vivant, almost neighbor in kreuzberg - organises a small
film festival in the lovely medieval city of
[speyer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer) together with old friends
every year between christmas and new years: the [grande
filiale](http://kommandohasenpfuhlstrasse.de).<!-- PELICAN_END_SUMMARY -->

i had been there already a year before and remembered good artsy films
and amazing white wine. i also knew that egon's flatmate neal from
berlin would be in town, so i decided to pay them a visit in speyer,
enjoy films and have some drinks.

after a long hot shower and a quick cold walk through the rain i sat in
the train to speyer - across the imaginary
[palatine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland-Palatinate) border of
the rhine river - through a wet and starless evening.

the arrival in speyer was already strange, because it felt warmer and
dryer here than home, although it's only 27km away. i walked through the
old town towards the [famous medieval
cathedral](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer_Cathedral) - all shops,
restaurants and the christmas market were closed and the few people on
the streets were obviously all tourists mumbling european languages and
staring in awe at the old catholic romanic
[cathedral](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer_Cathedral) with its
[kaiser graves](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speyer_Cathedral#Crypt). a
gloomy post-christmas vibe was in the air, this hesitant moment between
the fest feast food mayhem and the melancholic new years anxiety.

![](/library/speyer3.jpg "speyer3")

beyond the cathedral i walked down, past the old museum, along the empty
and wet motorway feeder road with its lonely traffic lights staring into
the night until i saw the silhouette of the [boeing 747 clinging to the
cloudy nightsky](http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en) frozen in
timespace. the closer i got the clearer i saw that lufthansa jumbo
looming over the railway bridge - chased by a vintage propeller chase
rising up vertically in wintery twilight.

right below the frozen 747 - in front of the discarded metal guardian
aeroplanes of the [technology
museum](http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en) - i saw the huge
advertisement billboard of the «casa dom» - desperately waiting for
prospects for the countless free square meters of desolated old
furniture showroom space: the venue of this year's «grande filiale».

![](/library/speyer2.jpg "speyer2")

greeted by wildly swarming fireflies of blaze from the burning trash bin
in front of «casa dom» heralding the post-apocalyptic spirit yet to
come, i snapped away my cigarette stub and entered the furniture
showroom.

there they were already - egon and neal - talking with gump at the
entrance desk. hello, nice to see you, welcome, handshakes, hugs and
grins were exchanged. egon snickered, gump gave me his typical askant
glance and neal already had an ominous glassy look in his eyes.

the atmosphere in the venue was quite cozy. selfmade wooden walls all
around, lit by blurry and warm slide projections, disrupted by
installation made from old plastic chairs, vinyl records or christmas
tree lights. across the room grandma's couch furniture, chairs and a
small platform in front of a huge german landscape painting invited to
relax, pretty palatine youngsters served beer, coke and schorle at the
bar - canopied by coloured baloons.

in the next moment i already had number one in my hand. the infamous
[palatine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatinate_(wine_region))
schorle. high class traditional white wine spritzed with a spark of
fizzy water, served in a [half liter tumbler
glass](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubbeglas). sounds innocent? big
mistake, foreigner!

i sat down in the cinema room to watch davide manuli «[la leggenda di
kaspar hauser](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqkl06CfKD4 "trailer")»
but unfortunately the organisers had problems with the provided copy of
the film, so egon switched to plan b: werner herzog's early work «[even
dwarfs started
small](http://www.reelz.com/trailer-clips/22777/even-dwarfs-started-small-trailer/)»
- a disturbing parable shot in black and white about a group of dwarfs
confined in a spanish finca style institution in a remote deserted
volcanic southern land who start to rebel against their directors who
barricade themselves in the house while the rebel dwarfs raise mayhem
outside, breaking dishes, burning flowers, fight with food and start
cock fights and crucify a monkey, and destroy a truck.

anxious and disturbed by the brilliant and strange flick i got myself
two more schorles, smoked cigarettes outside the building, fed the
burning trashbin with more rotten dry wood and listened to neal who told
me about the total amnesia he had the night before and the craziness
about this whole festival. i thought he was exaggerating as usual,
shrooked and we went back inside where the [psychedelic jazz
band](http://www.heringcerin.de/bands/) of another old grande filiale
protagonist - the highly talented drummer and jazz dj with the funny
nickname of sardine, was expected to begin.

![](/library/speyer1.jpg "speyer1")

the schorles already took their toll as the room got embraced by
subliminal syncopatic beats, mad guitar sounds and whining whispers. i
started to feel slightly dizzy from the audiovisual wonderland around me
and the white wine in my head but found myself dancing in a reptilian
slow motion way while the world around me diffused into a comforting
blur.

i am not really sure how much time had passed until the dj took over the
music, nor do i remember any break or transition between the flying
carpet jazz of sardine and the electronic rhythms that followed, but it
didn't matter anymore at this point, because the amount of schorle
intakes had already doubled and egon, neal and i were engaged in a
serious dancing contest against and with each other and the shady
persons around us. occasional flirty exchanges of looks with pretty
females around me, even moments of wild dancing twirls with others, but
overall i was already floating in my own bubble inside this psychedelic
happening that the grande filiale had become long long after midnight.

i am not really able to logically recall the rest of the night since
it's just a random collection of single images: me taking very long to
find my money for the next schorle … me laughing with neal trying to
clearly articulate and communicate with him … me stumbling through the
nearby petrol station to buy tobacco … sitting outside on a chair
between rubbish in the cold for some undefined timespan, dozing away …
darkness … blurs … clouds … waking up standing in the middle of the
road, sweating … calling egon on the phone … sitting in a car rushing
through the night … standing in a random kitchen i had never seen before
heating up lentil soup … looking at a gallery of paintings … standing in
a courtyard smoking … waking up on a mattrace, still wearing jacket and
shoes … egon snickering while asleep … neal yelling unspeakable things
while sleeping … falling back into a long dark coma surrounded by
patterns of colours and lights, whirling in a neverending carousel of
white wine ethanole dreams…