Now, just bear with us, all right? Once you found out we're in a German suburb you probably found yourself saying one of two things:

"Dude, suburbs are lame. Why are those chumps wasting their time doing a podcast from there?"

or

"Dude, the last thing we need is another critique of the suburbs. Talk about picking low fruit..."

Actually, we totally agree with both groups.

The Funk Doc started things off in the podcast by talking about a recent trip to Dessau where the Bauhaus art movement was once centered. Turns out to also be the home of strip mall and suburb prototypes that never caught on here in Germany, but blossomed in the fertile ground of post-war America.

We also talked about the Bauhaus's immense influence on "modern" life. So many appliances we buy at Wal-Mart, our downtown urban landscapes, and most of the furnishings at Ikea can trace their genealogy back to the Bauhaus. And even though the suburban lifestyle never really took in Germany (more likely due to lack of space and a reverance towards tradition than anything else), even their miserable apartment blocks from the 60's and 70's wouldn't have been possible without the Bauhaus (see the photo to the right taken once we got back into Berlin).

The Funk Doc snacking on "Kräckers".

Karl-Marx Strasse, (East) Berlin

Musically, we had a strange mix, I suppose. The first two tracks were from Tom Waits ("Frank's Wild Years" and "Hang On St. Christopher") and then we decided to play James Brown. Not sure why. It was a pretty uncreative choice but the song was on my mind a lot that day and I thought it might be a good way to exorcise it.

After "The Big Payback" we talked a little more and then played our final Tom Waits track "Tango till They're Sore".