AMERICANS IN BERLIN 2003: KRYLON SUPERSTAR
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About This Video
Americans in Berlin 2003: Krylon Superstar. A portrait from the Berlin documentary series featuring an artist known by their graffiti name. Street art and underground culture in early-2000s Berlin, before the galleries moved in. Van was 28, filming at the Deutsche Guggenheim.
Transcript
oh my God in 2003 I lived in Berlin as part of Tom Sax's nsis installation at
the Deutsche Guggenheim I was 28 years old and I had a social life there and through friends I met a bunch of
Americans who were living in Berlin at the time this was 2 years after September 11th 2001 and I began filming
these interviews on September 11th 2003 all right so who are you my name is
kryon SuperStar who that's my name but who I am is a legend a living
legend I'm laughing because it's true so when did you come here I came to Berlin almost 5 years ago from New York
City um should I go more detail yes I came to Berlin almost 5 years ago from New York City I fell in love with a boy in San
Diego and um he came to New York to visit me and um yeah I was still in love with him he had a boyfriend they broke up and he realized that he was in love with me so
he sent me a roundtrip ticket to Berlin and a note confessing his love to me and told me that if I don't come to Berlin
then just burn the ticket I was on the plane about 2 weeks
later it's a love story so what happened with him I'm still together with him at the moment almost 5 years so you came here
for love I came to Berlin for love yeah I didn't speak any German I had absolutely no idea about the culture in
in Germany I didn't know what Berlin was all about except that there was a wall here but I was confusing that with China all the time so I was like
whatever what did you think when you got here when I first got to Berlin I thought that um that the people seem to
be a little bit cold and a little bit distant and that's because of their it's just a different way of life instead of saying excuse me when they run into you
they just keep walking or um uh a lot of the the people at the at the checkout counters and the supermarket seem to be
a little bit pushy about like what I wanted and and for get me in and get me out as soon as possible so in a lot of
ways it was like New York but a little bit more slower you know and a lot more cigarettes was
just and uh do you miss anything about um I miss what New York used to
be my New York the New York that I lived in I I miss um the Glamorous parties I miss the dreams that I had there because
they were so real to me and I worked so hard to try to achieve them um I miss sometimes I miss the just the the
culture of of New York City um I missed the beaches in San Diego because that's where I was born I missed the food in
San Diego because you can't get it anywhere else in the world and I miss my family so what about
you said something about dreams like New York City is the type of place well when I was really let's just put
this when I was really young I told my mom when I was about 6 years old I gra packed myself a little suitcase and I walked out the door and she's like where
are you going I'm like I'm running away and she's like well where you going to run away to I'm like New York City and she's like well how you going to get there I'm like I don't know and so one
thing led to another and I came back in the house but when I finally did move to New York City my mom was like well I guess you did fulfill one of your dreams
and that was more dreams in New York City than just that just the dream of stardom the dream of being you know being something and doing something this
creative Outlet in New York City that was once there that isn't there anymore I don't think personally oh my God the
mic fell sorry and I'm not even drunk it's okay the last guy was
constantly knocking it off he was really Dr okay can't win with this
so so do you feel like this that you have a creative
um uh possibilities here or I think that Berlin is one of the it's it's um it's a
city that allows creative people to express themselves and is not looked upon as being weird it's just looked
upon as being artistic or in tune with you know one's own the Creative Energy
and I I believe that if one person is letting themselves go artistically it causes a chain effect and that chain
effect happened in Berlin and it's sort of like you know like there's a a ball of fire and there's all these little Sparks that go off the fire and I
believe that that's kind of happening here where everybody's just sort of flaming off this big ball of fire you know and I just when I
realized that Berlin was that I decided I never wanted to leave do you think that the financial
differences between big American cities and Berlin like how much it costs to live help people be more creative I I I
think that um I think that Berlin just like any other European city is more concerned with quality of
life rather than with um the amount of money one has in order to achieve quality of life it's it's like in Spain
or like and in Portugal or something these really really those countries that are not in you know technically wealthy
countries have a really high quality of life and Berlin just has a a quality of life
in an artistic manner that way you know so what do you do here for oh
um um well I'm kin Superstar last name to tell it all No I um at the moment I'm
in a theater play called salame at the deutches theater and I'm playing the guy who cuts the head off John the Baptist
um I played in theater pieces in Sophia and sa I've
um I've helped organize parties um I've done drag shows um I've been in
videos just sort of put my hand in all the different puddles that's out there you
know do what do you think about like for the future like are you going to stay
here or oh um I I believe that I will stay here but I
also believe that um change is always good and um to go with it when it
happens is even better because stagnant energy is stagnant energy so moving with energy wherever that ball goes is always
a good thing and if you're a part of the flame already then it'll move and you'll go with it is what I believe so I can't say that I'll stay
here forever but I'll say that I'm staying here right now because I don't know what the future is nobody does that's the impression I get from a
lot of people it's like that it's here now you know that's why you know I'm here not me personally but like people
are here it's like it's part of the that's part of what makes it it's
part of what why the energy is here I it's because these people are in touch with that M with the right here right
now yeah like just always looking for it I think that in in any situation people who F feel they in some
sort of a dark space are always attracted to light and Berlin has a light at the moment and people are
attracted to it it's just like moths attracted to you know level or lamps or whatever whatever it is what is it
Lumiere lamps I can't bug lamps bug lamps yeah it doesn't mean that you necessarily have
to die when you get here you know but it's always that attraction to light you know and some people either embrace it
or they try to put it out because it's too bright for them you know but if every if there's more people into it
then the people who try to put it out won't won't ever succeed it's the same thing that happened New York New York was light Giuliani came in and decided he wanted
to put it out instead of embrace it do you um have any kind of issues being black here is it more or less well
it just really depends on where I'm at um I live in West Berlin in shurg and
shinberg area and I have no problems at all um I know that there's places like matsan and and lenberg or whatever where
I don't go but because I choose not to be confronted with negative energy personally but I mean just like there's
negative energy in America there is in Germany as well um I think that it's
it's the the um the reputation that Germany has for you know as far as it past history goes
makes a lot of people who aren't from Germany automatically assume that me being black would have a problem immediately which that's not the case
you know there's a tolerance of not just blacks but also Asians and homosexuals and you know it's just one big huge
Melting Pot yeah but can you make a comparison to say new
york9 um no because um New York is also a Melting Pot but there's always these
sort of like clicky groups you know and it was always I mean there's outlets for people with who
are just open-minded and the outlets were more so in New York than they are now you know
um here it seems like the outlets are a lot bigger where you could just like walk through cburg and not feel like you're being threatened because you're
being black because you're black you know if anything you'll be threatened because you're from you're from a different country or whatever you know
which I find Landers is like a really bad word in Germany you know but what what do you think about
the lack of diversity I me it's like really white and that struck me like as soon as I got off the plane like
um I don't know because I don't really I don't I haven't really noticed I mean where I live it's very diverse and the
places that I go to is very diverse as well I mean I'm in M there's lots of black people there I'm in you know friedrick hin there's not lots of black
people but there are black people in friedrick hin as well you know shurg tons I don't know I just didn't I didn't
I didn't recognize that they're being it being very white I think that if you that the further east you go the more
white it is but then also the further east you go the more um intolerant it is
and I find just like in America you go to places that don't have have the groups that hated is more they hate the
groups more than anywhere else you know what I mean it's like people in the South or whatever who actually never
seen a black guy but it's quick to call him a [ __ ] you know it's there lot it's ignorance like Atlanta there a lot of people black people like Mobile
Alabama still yeah well I just I I meet lots of um lots of lots of southern people I
actually lived in Dothan Alabama for a while and I never had a problem and I lived in pukan Kentucky
and I never had a problem you know I don't know I guess in the in in that respect
you have to speak to a person who actually had issues with it but I never have I mean I'm from San Diego California you know I lived in La Hoya
which was predominantly white never had a problem that's just my personal
on look on at well you know kry why did you ask yeah I was going to say I mean one
thing to me that it sometimes seems like just a stick on the race thing for a minute is that um like in
America you go somewhere and there's like a big group of black people or a big group of Asian people or a big group of white people or whatever but they're
all kind of often times in groups according to race and here that obviously happens with the Turks but
that's partly religious thing but it seems to me like you know I still see lots of people of color various color
but they just are hanging out with you know it's mixed up more does it seem like that to you yeah absolutely absolutely because you know there's not
like just big gangs of Asian kids that hang out with other Vietnamese kids or you
know how about in like the rest of Germany then you've been in another places is it kind of the same no not at
all um I've said it before and I'll say it again I don't like Germany and I don't think that Berlin is Germany
personally I think it's just like a lot of people said that New York wasn't America you know and this kind of thing
I think you know um I've been to Frankfurt Frankfurt is fabulous I've been to Hamburg Hamburg is
fabulous but it's still not Berlin because there's still lots of int to an in those places you know and I don't I
just I think that if you go to a place like like um what is it called RW stock which is
completely fascist and you we I've driven through that before and um talking about RW
St and I've driven through that before having people totally give me dirty looks while they're listening to hip-hop inside of the car and I'm like oh well
that's real real intelligent you know I think it's just total stupidity you know lack of knowledge the and it's also
product of your environment if you grew up in in an environment full of hatred then you that sticks with you to a certain level you know unless of course
you go all out of your way to change it yourself you don't have the means I.E other black people or black
people period in that area then there's no way you can honest ly change your opinion of them
so I mean hip hop is one thing let's move on to fashion and glamour oh how fashionable do you think
Berlin is compared I mean not even compared but just how fashionable you think it is like let me tell you one of
my favorite stories I lived right down the street here on C stasa when I first moved here and um I walked into a bar
and this is when the whole 880s Revival thing was just coming back you know was just coming back in New York and I walked into this bar and there was a
lady done from head to toe full Electro 8s and I'm like oh my God she looks
fabulous I'm like she's like 40 and then it hit me this lady walked into this bar in 1984 and she has not
left since that's Berlin she actually had the exact same outfit on in
1984 and oh I'm sorry that's terrible okay I shouldn't have cut you off but what's the coolest
thing that you've seen here that you've just been like wow or among the coolest things like wow this is I'm so psych
that I liveed here um I was walking through Frederick's time um this was probably like 2 years
after I got here and I don't remember who I was walking with and I was walking walking walking and then I saw this hole
in the ground and there was music coming out of the hole and me and a friend climbed down into the hole and it was a
bar and I'm like that is fabulous just a random hole in the bar and that's the only way you can get in and the only way
you can get out and I was like that is so kickass was it it was bar like how
did they make it work was it like in they pound they pounded a hole into the like an old K into an old Keller and
they made a bar out of it and it's a squat bar and it still exists in in Frederick's time so he's been there yeah
how do you get in you get in through the hole there lad um it's kind of yeah that they kind
of manmade stairs yeah fun yeah that doesn't exist in New York so that is is one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced in Berlin I
heard a story uh this guy saw a shipping container like a big steel shipping container and like dozens and dozens of
people were walking into it and he was like there's no way they're all fit in there he worked in and they had cut a hole through the bottom of the shipping
container and then found an old abandoned Subway and then they it was staircase right there boom and they like got
illegal power and everything oh wow that's pretty clever few
resources yeah pretty clever do you speak German yet yes I do you do how long do that tast I've been here for 5 years I still don't speak it
perfectly but I speak enough to get by can understand and I can understand
it so where were you 2 years ago today September 11th I was doing the same thing I did
earlier today I was shopping now let me tell you the story I was I just found myself a new pair of shoes on the kudam
and I had I I saw them I'm like oh my God I got to get these [ __ ] shoes so I um I jumped on the train and I went
to the store and I had a handy at the time a mobile a sale whatever and um and
I was putting the trying the shoes on again and then a friend of mine David gave me a call he's from New York too and he's actually a film
director he gave me a call and he's like the Twin Towers just got collapsed I'm like shut up I'm like David give me a
call later nobody flew a plane into the Twin Towers please you've been watching way too much movies he's like no really kryon I'm like David what did you take
tonight I just didn't believe him and he's like well get to get to um uh get to a yuban cuz they have little TVs on
the ubon get to ubon as fast as possible so went to the you know bought the shoes went to the ubon and I saw it and I'm like oh that's so weird because I was
just speaking to and this is the honest truth a week before that I was talking to a friend of mine and I
said that there is stagnant energy happening so something big is about to
go down something as big as like um as Woodstock is about to happen because it
has to because it's around the time that it needs to happen and Mars was just coming closer
and closer and closer to Earth you know and that was just the beginning of the pool and I'm like something big is g to happen I don't know where it is going to happen I don't know what's going to
happen I thought maybe it'll happen in New York but I'm not sure and I thought it was gonna happen in Berlin you know and I was like whatever it is I
definitely have to somehow take part in it and be a part of it because it's amazing and so sure as [ __ ] that happened you
know not like I'm saying I'm psychic but you know some people believe otherwise and um and then I met a
another person who did this um who did this CD cover for his band and he did it like May a month before the September
11th thing happened and it was um the Twin Towers with two planes coming toward them and the FBI came and started
you know questioning him and stuff like that I'm seen the CD cover and I know he did that a month before a month or something before the September 11th
thing happened it's just a whole all these different coin coincidences you know what I mean so
intellectual on certain levels swe yes so this kid was in New York with the
with the uh no he's from Berlin wow in FBI yeah because tracked him down mhm and there was also he was a part of a a group of people who were Tracked
Down by the FBI for the their Publications that were very very very um coincidental with the whole September
11th thing the other one was a hip-hop group from New York City and the back of their CD cover and I swear to God I've
seen it is these two guys are standing in front of the World Trade Center and the the World Trade Center was exploding
exactly the way the planes went into the World Trade Center they had no idea that was going to happen they just wanted
something really scandalous and this was like a month or so before the World Trade Center happened too so did you talk to those guys no I didn't talk to
those guys from because they're from New York I only talked to the guys from Berlin what happening oh well they
couldn't they they didn't they had there's absolutely no proof that they were involved in any way shape or form it was just pure
coincidence so got off yeah yeah they all got off did they get like thrilled or anything by that yeah absolutely so I
was actually going to get back a little bit get a little political for a second just kind to see like what you what you
see happening in America right now politically and how it makes you feel and if that has anything to do I mean
obviously you're loveing for Landon Your Love HRI and your love people like me is the main things that keep you here but if for example you had some really good
opportunity in America if political things going on there would play any part in your decision to not go or what
you know what I mean that's kind of a long weird question but just talk about how you feel though that whole
Administration how's it going it's going good it's going pretty good Love is a
Battlefield she called me I was oh sorry oh so I go well um I think that America is a
very corrupt country and I believe that you reap what you sell um I believe that
[Music] um I believe that the the worst part about it is is that um that no matter what um they'll always try to be the headman in charge you know which is one of the reasons why I personally will
never go back to America you know to live I mean I can't say I can't never say never but I'll to say if the
political situation did change yes I would go back because all my family is there but at the at this point in my life no I wouldn't because politically
it's a it's a nightmare and how do you feel about the political in Germany
um I think that the political scene in Germany could probably be a little bit better than it is but I believe that it's a lot more open than it is in
America and how do you feel about like for example I mean now out since you've been here you have some different access to healthcare and things that you have
in America um how about that aspect of it well because
um is there Aster um sorry sorry about that um yeah I think that got I no I think as far as um you know like healthcare and stuff like that I mean it's like it's
ridiculous to call yourself a superpower and then have people own welfare and and and having people
actually try to like um get you know Social Security and stuff like that when
in countries like Berlin it just comes so so much more naturally you know I mean there so many presidents you know
um promis so much stuff about Healthcare and security and and I mean I think that's also a main priority in the you
know the survival of one's country is the health of one's country and if you don't have that kind of a you know a care for your citizens then it's like a
sick diseased country you know what I mean I think that America on the outside is all fine and dandy but any shell is
and in the inside it's complete chaos you know yeah because I mean it's it's the
rich getting richer while the poor getting poor it's crossing a certain boundary a certain border and then
finally figuring it all out you know but you have to somehow get to that B that border and the rich won't allow that to
happen I was thinking about how you're oh how shall we say little accident
prone from time to time and uh I was just wondering like what do you
think you would do if like you know like some of the cuts and roping chip teeth and things would have happened in America and you didn't have some sort of
Health Care System carings well the thing is is that to my understanding what they do is they um
they'll they'll um Bill you and then harp on you to pay it back and stuff
like that so you know I'd have to have medical ention so I'd have to go through it you know which is a nightmare because
you know it it really shouldn't be that way it should be that just like State Insurance you know should pay for it I
mean as much tax dollars as the Americans are paying at least some of that can go into Healthcare yeah the government's number
one responsibility is to take care is to protect citizens well according to America the the government's number one
responsibility is to [ __ ] is to build more bombs and try to try to tell everybody else
how to rule their country when the government of America can't rule its own own you know tap
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Krylon mentions — spray paint brand referenced in title Krylon Superstar
People Referenced
Tom Sachs