I had to go to Berlin to film interviews for a documentary about Rowland Howard for Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein. I had all of the interviews set up. I was already on my way to Berlin when I had found out that the friend that I was staying with had to leave Berlin and I couldn't stay there. I made several quick calls to other friends and could not find anyone home. I accepted the fact that I had the extra added expense of a hotel, but then my mobile phone rang. It was Sheela Lionheart calling to ask when I was going to come to Berlin. I told her the situation and she kindly offered to let me stay at her place.I have to write something about this photo. Usually I do the photo myself, but Sheela wanted to collaborate and have the photo represent herself the way that she wanted it to. She did the photoshop on this photo in a way that she wanted to and I took the photo, hence, the collaboration.
I met Sheela a month before when I was filming the 30th anniversary party of Einsturzende Neubauten. I was busy filming and I kept hearing a deep smoky Berlin type of voice asking me questions. Sheela introduced herself to me. I didn't know her that well and for her to call me out of the blue was kind of magical. For me, Sheela is a kind of magical Berlin sprite. Other people have called her a shape-shifter that turns into various shapes and forms. The truth is she's a magical singer, musician and composer who plays a wide assortment of instruments. She works at home in her makeshift studio. The shape-shifting happens to her when she madly works on her compositions without sleeping for days at a time. When I took this photo, she was twirling around the room like a dervish on fire, playing the guitar and singing lyrics in an ancient language. If you look closely you might see several shapes and forms that she changes into.
Sheela told me that she lived in the Schöneberg area of Berlin. When I first went to Berlin, eons ago, I had stayed on the very same street in Schöneberg. And yes, it was kind of magic. I arrived at Sheela's and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she lived directly across from where I had first stayed in Berlin. Sheela and I stayed up all night and talked. I told her the story about how I had first come to Berlin.
I was living in New York and was getting ready to make my very first trip to Berlin. Someone gave me the Christopher Isherwood book "Berlin Stories" to read before going. These were stories about Christopher Isherwood living in decadent Berlin before Hitler came to power. I read this book on my journey to Berlin. I made plans to stay with an old friend Barbara and her flatmate Brigitta. I arrived at their building and looked up at a bronze plaque next to the door. I read it and was surprised to find out that Christopher Isherwood had lived in this building while he wrote the book "Berlin Stories". I was greeted by Barbara and led into her flat. I told her about reading the Isherwood book and that it was a nice coincidence that he had written this book while living in her building. She laughed and said,"What's even more of a coincidence is that he lived in this flat!"
I was jet-lagged and wanted to rest. Barbara and Brigitta went out and let me sleep in their loft bed with TV and stereo. After they left, I switched on the TV and was shocked even more. The musical film "Cabaret" was playing! "Cabaret" was based on one of the stories from the Christopher Isherwood book "Berlin Stories". I had to ask myself,"Are these coincidences or do they have some meaning? Do Coincidences that happen repeatedly have some deeper meaning?"
While staying at this flat, several other strange things happened. One night Barbara and I were out late and we came back to the flat kind of drunk. We discovered that Barbara had forgotten her keys inside the flat. Brigitta wasn't home, but she her cat was. We heard the cat coming to the door making purring sounds. She was hungry. Barbara repeatedly called her name. We heard noise on the other side of the door. The cat was actually jumping up and down. After lots of jumping, the door clicked open and we walked inside. The cat had jumped up and hit the door handle opening the door for us. True.
The night before leaving Berlin I was sleeping soundly. I had an intense dream that woke me up. It was a dream about a friend of mine, John Sex. John was an amazing performer in New York. He spoke to me in the dream and told me that everything was fine and that he was fine. The dream stayed with me for several days after. I had not seen John for quite some time. John had been ill with AIDS for awhile and retreated in his flat. When I got back to New York I found out that he passed away. I also found out he passed away the day that I had this particular dream. All this had come back to me while I stayed at Sheela's and I asked myself again about these coincidences, their meanings and why I was reminded again at this point in my life. I want to thank Sheela for bringing that all back to me.
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