Momzilla

[imomus]

Well, screw soccer and screw painting a German flag on your face and shouting "Deutschland, Deutschland!" at strangers on the street to celebrate Germany's 4-2 win over Costa Rica (for those who come here for the football scores). I'm more interested in wondering how the Fernseturm would look if some giant picked it up, swivelled around to the East, and planted it in the middle of Tokyo.



Yesterday at the art openings at Jannowitzbrucke I ran into Japanese artist Shintaro Miyake, who told me he's performing at the Neue Nationalgalerie today between 12 and 2 and then again from 4 to 5pm. He's there as part of the big Berlin Tokyo show which spent a couple of months earlier this year atop the Mori Museum at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo.

I last saw a Miyake performance when, back in November 2002, he celebrated the demolition of the Shokuryo Building, Tokyo's old art hub in Saga, by dressing up as a sort of kabuki monster and painting a huge painting of a little girl on the floor of the courtyard. You can see images of that performance here. It was called Emotional Site, and it was an emotional sight indeed. This time, in Berlin, he promises to dress up again, and paint something yellow. I'll be there.

First, though, I'm going to inspect -- and probably take, unless there's something drastically wrong with it -- a flat in my old neighbourhood, Friedrichshain. Yes, I know I was going to be an urban pioneer and move to Berlin's worst district, but this place is "the Asian option": it's above an Asian food store, it's got patina to spare, it's right around the corner from my favourite Japanese cafe, Smart Deli, and close to the U5 line which leads to the Thai grocery on Alexanderplatz where Hisae and I shop for food. Most important, it's dirt cheap (just €350 a month including hot water and heating costs), which means that I'll be able to abandon it regularly for trips to Japan.

So the apartment, too, is "Berlin-Tokyo". I feel like I could lift it, like some huge Berlin Godzilla, swivel, and drop it down into Tokyo for three months a year.

Comments

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lovely apartment!

What is the true appeal of living near displaced Asian minorities in Western countries? (It's probably just the great groceries.)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's not just the groceries, I really feel at home near Asian things. You know how natsukashii can mean nostalgia evoked by something you've never actually experienced? Well, in the same way you can feel at home in a culture you weren't actually born into. Elective affinities, Goethe called it.

[iamcoreyd.livejournal.com]

I've recently discovered that the neighborhood I'll be living in within a week is comprised of 1/3 foreigners (not so much Japanese, I think). I will admit, I am excited.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I saw a lot of Germans draped in the German flag, with its colours painted onto their faces. It's quite a rare sight here, that kind of patriotism, for obvious reasons. Only at World Cup time does this "Strong Force" get unleashed. Mostly it seems perfectly harmless (though the combination of a German win over a third world country, alcohol and a Friday night made we worry for non-white people encountered on the streets... I suppose it's more dangerous when Germany loses).

I should add that I saw a few black people wearing the German colours yesterday too, one with a black, red and gold afro! Maybe a defensive move, or maybe an instance of the thing I embody and advocate: patriotism for a culture which is not your culture of origin.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

By golden gates of babylon! That giant is saving us from the soccer league! Hooray!

[spoombung.livejournal.com]

I wish the two of you would stop patting each other on the back and congratulating yourselves on being fullsome sexual, arty people etc

shintaro miyake

[n3koch4n.livejournal.com]

i first run into you because i was researching on shintaro miyake, and i found your lovely page of photos of that performance of his.
and now he's in berlin! i always miss his performances in europe :( that man really needs some timely promotion in english language.

if you're going to his show i'm really looking forward your thoughts about it :)

[spoombung.livejournal.com]

...I got a good mind to set a test for the two of you on the offside rule, you bunch of tossers!

[xishimarux.livejournal.com]

350 euro a month!? Cripes thats cheap.

[wringham.livejournal.com]

€350 sounds incredibly cheap. Is that the typical rent in that district? Does Berlin tend to be a cost-effective city to live in?

[svenskasfinx.livejournal.com]

I don't know why but I empthise with this - I too feel at home with Asian things, but this may be because my first language was Chinese, then again, there is a certain "nostaglia" that is in my heart for a certain "style" of design as well as food items.

I'm a bit international, but every good city is, and I would be lost without a shop to buy Chrysanthum tea and tofu, but yet I have found all of these things quite easily here in Stockholm, but its like an "emotional scavenger hunt" when you do move to a new area and find the things you have affinites for...

I introduced my husband to places he didn't have any idea of their existance in this city, and he lived here all his life, and I had just move here then.. but now he too can't live without the tofu and unique vegetables in cans :) as well as lovely Yunan tea.

[avatorrotava.livejournal.com]

Wow! that is cheap!
and how big an apartment you get for that kind of money?

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Schwa? Are we speaking in bubbles today?

[henryperri.livejournal.com]

impressive crop job.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It turned out to be €420, in fact. And I decided that too much patina (http://imomus.livejournal.com/200022.html) can be a bad thing!

The hunt continues.

(But yes, rents like that, for about 60m2, are perfectly normal here.)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Does Berlin tend to be a cost-effective city to live in?

That's why we're all here. Let me put it this way, it's so cost-effective that the main danger is getting sucked into an anti-commerical spiral and being unable ever to live anywhere else (or certainly not with the quality of life here). People get out of the habit of earning money in Berlin. And beer is super-cheap too (60 euro cents a bottle), so people get sucked into sucking that, too.

Of course, I'm not that type at all... (hic)

[(Anonymous)]

What about the area between Friedrichshain and Neukölln Nord? (aka SO36)
Btw beware of Ofenheizung in Friedrichshain, they tend to be really messy.

a tad late

[(Anonymous)]

bara bara : "scattered"

June 4th, 2006:
"Jo and Barbara tried to bond, holidaying in Paris together, but their personalities clashed; Jo was shy and insecure, Barabara confident and bossy."

Your repressed antagonism for Grandma B. has finally found a language!

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

That's one fierce pancake.

Re: a tad late

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Au contraire, I adore Aunt B!

[snoeksen (from livejournal.com)]

Well, believe it or not, there are actually black people who are born and raised in Germany. Maybe it is their culture of origin (granted, maybe only for their generation). But I guess there are also a lot of white people running around now, wrapped in german flags, who are not of german origin.

It also works the other way round: today I heard of a friend of a friend who bought a shirt of the national team of Togo. And not to forget all the young germans in brazilian outfits...

Oh, and do you really think "we" would have celebrated any different, if the losing team wouldn't have been from a third world country?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm intrigued by Berlin but have never visited and wonder when you say that "people get out of the habit of earning money in Berlin" if there is money to be made there if people do want to work?

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

break it off and eat it!! i bet the ball is full of chocolate!!

[siokaos.livejournal.com]

nice birkis