Just sitting in front of the computer - as usual - working away on stuff, and listening to online radio while doing so - for some reason, I thought I try a station called "Warrior Radio" on Live365.com, the site I usually use to listen to stuff.

The station name just sounded interesting, and I kind of expected something really bad, but know what: The first song to hit my ears was 'Atreyu's Quest' by Klaus Doldinger, from the soundtrack to "The Neverending Story" ("Die Unendliche Geschichte", to give it its original German title)

Shivers down my spine, for quite a number of reasons:

1: Although it's an old 80's movie, it's still my all-time favourite - watched it X+ times - first time at the local cinema, and then X-more times on Video2000 many many moons ago (for the younger readers: many years ago, there was a battle between V2000, Beta and VHS - VHS won in the end, but the other formats still produced a number of titles during their short lifespan, and we had all three players at home at the time - I somehow think my dad ultimately regreted buying two of them )

2: Michael Ende, the author of the Neverending Story, was born in my hometown, barely 500 meters away from where I grew up - the place was called "Buntes Haus" (Colourful House) and was torn down years ago - I still remember it the way it was, though - a near derelict, yet beautiful buildig in the centre of town.

3: I've been through the book X+ times. I don't read many books - I'm mainly geared towards quickly digestible information, and somehow always have been - news, short and snappy articles with good headlines, well worded current affairs stuff - that kinda thing.. I always saw books as a waste of time - read the review or synopsis, that will be enough - I have enough imagination for myself, I don't need external stimulation through printed paper, thank you very much.. With the Neverending Story, it was different, though - after the first page, I was hooked... I still remember that it had a sort-of grey cover, and differently coloured text - green and red. Green for the first part, red for the second (I think).

4: I've been to the set of the movie a number of times. It's at the Bavaria Film Studios in Munich, and has all the characters, models (no CGI at the time..), and other stuff from the movie - you kinda walk through it, and recognize stuff - it's amazing... (btw: That's the same studio where "Das Boot" was filmed - if you're ever in Munich - go there! Nothing beats walking through the original (real) submarine used for the movie, and just in case you remember a movie called "Enemy Mine", that was filmed there as well, and you'll also walk through the set during the tour)

5: Probably most importantly, and most influental, I met Michael Ende when he visited my school many years ago - he came there for a reading, and I remember he was reading from Momo (love that movie and book as well - Men in Grey, anyone ?). I still remember it like it was yesterday - him, sitting there on his own in front of a packed room (around 600 people, I think), reading from his book - and reading like he must have felt when he wrote it - absolutely amazing - nobody, absolutely nobody in the whole wide world, could have read it the way he did - exactly the way I was reading it, stimulating the same mental pictures I developed when I was reading it for myself, back home, underneath my blanket, with a torch in my hand - not sure if he was just so good at reading his own stuff, or if it had something to do with the fact that he had returned to his hometown for this, and was somehow using 'home advantage', but there was something magical about this - a really great atmosphere filling this huge hall - all created by one single guy at the front, reading from a book - I will never, absolutely never, forget that afternoon - one of the most memorable moments of my life.....

Once he finished reading, he held a sort of 'meet and greet' session - anyone could queue up, shake his hand, ask for his autograph, etc..

I was waiting in line as well, but everyone in front of me seemed to have some sort of posh diary for him to sign, something that seemed really well prepared and looked rather expensive - I didn't.... I didn't have anything for him to sign, apart from the ticket I got in order to attend the reading - ripped apart in the middle when I entered the venue. That was the only thing I had at hand for the person I admired so much to sign - the man that wrote a book that had me hooked for months, that made me imagine I'm Atreyu (never really fancied being Bastian - boring guy..), that made me belive there's a Phantasia, that gave my imagination wings - and all I cold give him to sign was that torn little ticket..

It was my turn - I was standing in front of him, saying hello, trying to say how much I love his books and how much they mean to me, but somehow I couldn't - too many thoughts, too many things to say all at once - it just didn't work... He just looked up, like he probably did a thousand times before, took my little torn ticket, signed it, and handed it back to me, shaking my hand while doing so, smiling all the way through - a genuine smile, nothing faked - he smiled like he really enjoyed being there, and I am sure he did...

I just took that ticket and held it in my hand - I held on to it it like a treasure, and still do - it's right here, on my desk, and I will keep it for all eternity, or at least as long as I'm around - a little piece of paper, torn in the middle, which means so much to me, as it was signed by the very man who made me believe that I could be anything and anyone when I was a kid - Mr Ende, thank you for that..

And just in case you don't believe the "little student with torn ticket, signed by Michael Ende" story - here it is:

It may only look like a little torn piece of paper, signed by someone, to you, but to me, it's a treasure, and it's going right back into its frame as I type - if this house should ever burn down (god forbid), that little piece of paper would be the first thing I would grab on the way out - apart from the cat maybe, but she's usually out of the door at the slightest sign of danger, so no real worries there..