Berlinagain beginagain

[imomus]

the air is forest fresh
all the taxis are mercedes
people have a slightly sullen postpunk glare, no cries of "have a great day" here
cars look tiny neat and eco
the yellow ticket machines work and are clean
the futuristic bus voice
mysterious superlegitimate canals, train boxes
there is something sacred about industry and nature here
fucking giant blotchy footballs everywhere, on unten den linden, up the tv tower
football shaped cookies advertised with the slogan "football hungry?"
modernism
sobriety
sensible bicycles
the "yokel stare" if you look odd
the new railway station
apparently a madman stabbed 19 people at the opening
the old palast der republik is being demolished
so many flower shops
autumnal harvest decorations in people's windows
wooden bicycles for kids
very good coffee
kraft durch freude fuck usa heart aisha (graffiti)
lovely church bells
anal people who don't cross against red
birdsong is the loudest sound you hear
posters for a dance piece with a japanese woman, for the ex-berliner fashion issue
tanned girl with heidi braids in the bakery
everyone looks like they're in some children's book from the 19th century, "the window cleaner", "the flower seller" etc!
coffee and a cake is very cheap
this odd mixture of trendy and ultra-trad

Comments

[bikerbar.livejournal.com]

"everyone looks like they're in some children's book from the 19th century"

Like freshly baked bread, Central Europe is both traditional yet substantive. The 19th Century is still alive here .. sometimes I think in Prague even the Renaissance is still alive. Categories like "window-cleaner" and "flower-seller" are indicative of a healthy society, like pre-WWII America, where people interact. But the States has given itself over to the fantasy of advertising to such a degree that actual life is bland and unreal. I was telling a friend the other day that the difference in the texture of the States and the Czech Republic is that USA is like a smooth glass television screen, artificial and glaring, whereas Czechy is more like a rough stone (or chipped plaster), hard but real.

So welcome back to the land of the real. Where people could be a bit less glum and distant, but if they were would feel like they were imitating some superficial American film.