i am still as high as a kite.

it feels bizarre, sitting alone in my flat at my computer. i need time to come down from this evening. at the end of the reading, andre eisermann read an extract from the book about his relationship with his audiene, and how difficult it is to recover from a theatre performance and the like, how strange it is to be alone after the noise and the connecting to the people. - and i guess it's a wee bit similar for me now.

i had the most amazing night tonight. andre eisermann is just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
brilliant and honest and funny and just grande. he sang liza minelli, recited sophokles, used plenty of dialects while reading and just pulled it all off so extremely well. he was honestly humble and happy about the applause and the 4 curtains they gave him and how packed it was and how much the people cheered and all the blonde girls (like me) queued for half an hour to get their books signed.

the book excerpts were well chosen, too, and -as i had read it, after all, sort of expected, but that didn't harm their effect at all. what i realised today was that one thin i admire is his ability to write about extremely embarrassing situations in his life and see the humour in them, without being angry at his "old self" for having been that way.

that aside, i can't really put down just what attracts me to him that much - whether it's the voice, the attitude, the brains, his slightly off looks, i don't know. but sitting there in the darkness, listening to him, this very familiar voice, i felt deeply moved by the words and the voice and the gestures and the blue eyes and shiny blonde hair that kept falling into his eyes and the singing and the whole atmosphere of the performance.

did not make a total fool of myself at the signing afterwards (hooray! a first!), even though i was all nervous and starstruck when i got my 3 minute chat. mentioned that i disagreed with his view about his performances in berlin in early 1999 as expressed in the book and that he *did* reach the audience the night i was there with a group of exhchange students and how funny it was that he beheaded one of them on stage. thanked him for the fabulous evening and wished him well and expressed my hope that he might return to freiburg to do werther (which he might. yay.)

as a result, i got the best dedication i have from any author yet:

"thank you for the wonderful nights in berlin and freiburg.
:) andre eisermann

now i can feel at least a little like the literature groupie i would be if it weren't for evan and true love in my life.

sigh. what a perfect evening.