Let’s Be Ubercoolische And Move To Berlin
Parody! It’s frowned upon and revered in equal parts by comedians and comedy enthusiasts worldwide. Ubercoolische was a site that poked light-hearted fun at a few real-life electronic musicians, the popularity of Berlin-bound migration and over-use of the word “minimal”. It was sparked by this amusing Metrotimes article about the Berlin scene which I suggest you read before proceeding.
Picture by Wouter Smit
The cast of Ubercoolische is as follows: Richie Hawtin a.k.a. Plastikman, Ricardo Villalobos of multiple minimal techno projects, and Magda – DJ whose MySpace name is, yes, Minimagda. Whether you’re in the electronic scene or not, surely you’ll appreciate the hilarity of this once-meme. While ubercoolische.com is down these days achrive.org comes through once again. Though their server appears a bit spotty you can read all of the installments here. And if you really love it, T-shirts are still available.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
This blog post is so philosophical. Isn’t it wonderfully minimal how we are all creating our own reality on this dystopian urban internet?
April 8th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Thank you, Daniel. It’s like the philosophy just comes through us and our community of minds.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
“Milieu of reduction and regeneration!” Yeah!!
I love that stuff. Great find. :)
April 9th, 2008 at 12:31 am
hehe, it’s FUNNY because it’s TRUE.
I know so many expat Berliner microheads, it boggles the mind.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:16 am
MAGDA MAKE THE TEA! Was curious what they thought about it… Magda did this interview with Sonic Revolt:
Sound Revolt: Have you seen those t-shirts saying “Magda make the tea”? How did it all started?
Magda: How can I not see them? People wear them everywhere I go! There’s a guy from Detroit who came and did an article about what’s happening with Rich and Berlin. But the way he wrote his article was… like not about us at all. This “swanky apartment” and “minimal restaurants” – it’s ridiculous. He focused on those things instead of writing about what’s really going on. But I don’t think he did it intentionally. If I read this article I’d think like “God, what the fucking losers they are!” but press is really like that a lot. I knew that something was going to happen. And happened this Ubercoolische site (www.ubercoolische.com – SR). Well… it is totally fucked up and at the same time very funny. But I couldn’t figure out whether these guys really were serious and hated us, and we obviously were curious who did it. And then turned out they booked me, so they really like what we do. Anyway, I’m getting e-mails from all over the world “have you seen this?” I didn’t really read the whole thing but I guess I’m the tea maker, like servant. I met those guys from Ubercoolische in London and they’re really nice. All the money they make out of selling those t-shirts goes to charity. At least it’s what they say [laughs].
Sound Revolt: I saw a picture with you holding a kettle. This was before or after?
Magda: This was after, of course. This was in Belgium and there was a guy who brought a kettle to the DJ booth.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Richie: Yes, she showed up WITHOUT A SCARF!
Berlin Scarf Seller: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGH [Berlin Scarf Seller has a heart attack and falls down dead]
Richie, Ricardo and Luciano: Hurrah free scarves!!!!
How is this not still alive? Not overly familiar with the music genre depicted but damn that site is hilarious. Many thanks for the find…
April 9th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Tequila – I suppose it was hard to keep the same joke going forever? I just wish they’d kept the site up for posterity, though.
Nadya – I read Magda interview before posting, and after accessing it still think that while the Metrotimes article was an exaggeration it held a healthy dollop of truth! Funny, funny troooth. I love that the creators were fans and seeing Richie Hawtin is actually wearing the “Magda Make The Tea” T-shirt, in addition to the Magda teapot pic.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:00 am
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