Gartenstrasse, Mitte – Friday, 8:36 PM

HEROIN! Now there’s a nasty drug. God, I remember doing heroin at the Beat Hotel in Paris in the 50’s with Allen Ginsberg. No, I always preferred the psychadelics; LSD and the like. But my favourite was psylocybin. What a pure high! It was almost VIRGINAL… I felt like I was in “The Song of Bernadette”. The first time I took it was in Berkeley in the 60’s – I forgot all about shopping; my bourgeois existence. Oh, did I tell you I sold the beach house? Top of the market. They turned it into condos and are selling them for a RIDICULOUS price. Boggles the mind, really.

But I’ve stopped doing drugs now; at my age you have to choose your urges and I save mine for sex! But do you remember the 80’s with Salomé? He would bring a big chunk of hash and we would play Scat. Oh no dear, Salomé wasn’t a woman, HE is a highly regarded artist…. Yes, I remember clearly – it was you, me, Salomé and ATTILLA…. at that dingy club in Schöneberg. What was it called - The Yellow Umbrella? Oh God, the SHOWS they used to put on! Real cabaret, back when there was still such a thing. The owner was this ancient transvestite from the Weimar years, and I always brought her little offerings of peyote so we could get a table by the dance floor. Say, do you remember that New Years Eve when the waiters walked around completely naked carrying silver trays of cocaine? Now THERE was a party. Nowadays it’s all benefits…raise money for this and that. Incredibly dismal; weltschmerz just kills my mood. I mean, how can you have an out of body experience at a benefit for Rwanda, or AIDS? At the end of it, I’d just rather cut a cheque.

Oh, don’t you just love Hildegard Knef? If cigarettes could sing! What a voice of experience. Hearing her interpret Cole Porter makes me want to just light up and get naked. I met her once, you know. Amsterdam. The 70’s. Now there was a time…these days they’re closing down all the whorehouses to make room for designer shops and other such nonesense. Oh how I mourn the demise of innocent pleasure, of cheeky hedonism…having sex in fits of laughter. It is all so serious, now.

And yes, I will have some more wine, now that you’re asking. Say, did you get that invitation for the opening at the Berlinische Gallerie? I would love to go, but I’ll be in Zurich that week. Wouldn’t you know Iskandar is turning 65? Can it be? It seems like only yesterday we were getting fucked out of our minds on Mykonos….