Berlin: a certain style

[imomus]

Edit: Two of these photos were taken in Neukolln, the subject of my new Wired piece, Going Tribal in Berlin's "Neubeca".

Comments

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

I love that outdoor café picture !

[nina-blomquist.livejournal.com]

the record store with the faded "grossküchen" sign is nice. you can listen to music outside on these ergodynamic wooden chairs.

[(Anonymous)]

It looks like San Francisco!

[mjb.livejournal.com]

You mean, San Francisco looks (very vaguely) like Berlin.

[nato-dakke.livejournal.com]

that's not a very nice thing to say about a city. Have you been to san francisco recently? It's dead on it's feet.

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

by what criteria are you judging?

[nato-dakke.livejournal.com]

I was there last week, and grew up in its shadow.

There's just nothing going on. The city doesn't feel engaged in anything, art, politics, anything. More than anything else, it seems to be striving to be as completely boring and normal as the south and north bay suburbs. The east bay and sac still seem ok.

In the final analysis though, I judge a city by how I feel in it. If a city can't make me feel undereducated and uncool, then it's got nothing going.

[(Anonymous)]

There are plenty of things going on in San Francisco. You're just not looking hard enough:

http://www.zombietime.com/world_naked_bike_ride_2006/

[nato-dakke.livejournal.com]

60 naked people does not "engagement" make.

I felt like a whole cloth rip off of momus, but the only part of the city I enjoyed this time was chinatown. Even if chinatown is grubbing for the tourist dollar, it feels a 100% nicer a sales pitch than the haight, the wharf, market square or even the castro.

[wildbirdcall.livejournal.com]

did you spend all of your time in tourist zones then? what makes a city alive is not necessarily paraded on the streets. besides, we're a city in miniature.

[nato-dakke.livejournal.com]

I beg to differ. What makes a "city" alive IS what is paraded on the streets, otherwise, it might as well be a bedroom community, IE suburb. Maybe it's a nice place to live (I suspect it's not), but it's really not worth a visit.

The public and commercial space of SF is mostly comprised of "tourist zones", especially if the castro now qualifies as a tourist zone. If there is some special magic to living in the $1000 a month apartments that border a small green space, it can be had much cheaper in a city like berlin, without having to deal with the myriad and very scary homeless, and the 10 trillion cars of san francisco.
Maybe the city can't thrive without a successful NFL team.

Fotos & Podcasts

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for sharing your fotos. I always enjoy your livejournal entries like this... Having never been to Berlin, I enjoyed looking at your photographs, and "filling them in" with my imagined ambient sounds, smells, etc. Please keep this kind of thing coming, I love it.

Thank You,

Winslow

PS: Just wanted to let you know that I very much enjoyed your podcasting that you were doing a year and two ago. Your "walking around" podcasts. Also that pastiche of japanese ambient sound was fun. Please think of doing more of those too. Hope I'm not asking too much. At the very least, I wanted to let you know what I've enjoyed of yours.

[siokaos.livejournal.com]

a picture is worth a thousand words

[maimocles.livejournal.com]

Is that an average?

[cheapsurrealist.livejournal.com]

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

do you know what the longest word in German is?

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

Oh wait--that's Austrian. Nevermind.

[birdflew.livejournal.com]

I do, but strangely enough I haven't managed to once slip it into conversation. Shame really.

[cityramica.livejournal.com]

mind slipping it into this 'conversation'? :)
i'm curious.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

I wanted to go for a ride on the Danube, but I couldn't cut a deal with the Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft.

[birdflew.livejournal.com]

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft. But you won't hear that one unless you frequent the docks, so another good one to know is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, which believe it or not is actually a short form! Heizölrückstoßabdämpfung is apparently the longest German word that has no repeating letters. Those came up while googling the spelling of the first. German words are great for winning spelling bees.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I think the longest word in existence is a place name in Welsh.

[thetemplekeeper.livejournal.com]

Do you mean "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch"?

It is indeed a wonderful station name (and I may even remember how to pronounce it), though unfortunately, even when stretched out, it's dwarfed by the Maori hill-name "Taumatawhakatang­ihangakoauauot­amateaturipukaka­pikimaunga­horonuku­pokaiwhenuak­itanatahu " (think they were just showing off).

Here's a nice picture of the station sign in Wales, though: Hope it's not too big for ClickOpera - I haven't cropped it at all...

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

The very one!

[alibee.livejournal.com]

The best way to tell that you and Justin are related is the "really long diatribe" gene is inherent in both of you. Heh. :)

Yes, this has nothing to do with this post in particular, but I was emailing with him and that occurred to me. alison = freak

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Has he said what he made of the entry about him yet?

[alibee.livejournal.com]

He said he was scared to read it ;)

As an aside, he said that he and Iain were working on something together under the Del name, and that it was more... electronic. So who knows, maybe the Del Momus record will be next.

Alexandre

[(Anonymous)]

Man, how 'bout some groovy night life pics from berlin?
That I'd like to see. Is there any active youthfull hip night-life in Neukoln?

[(Anonymous)]

i guess none of these pictures were taken in neukölln.
certain parts of neukölln are famous for the hip gang fights and shootings that add to the district's night-life.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

One of the pictures is taken in Neukolln. The one that reads "RAUMAUSSTATTUNG" is taken, as you can see, on Weserstrasse.

[(Anonymous)]

The one that reads "RAUMAUSSTATTUNG" is taken, as you can see, on Weserstrasse.

aah, of course! if that shop would be in mitte or prenzl.berg it certainly wouldn't accommodate a furniture shop anymore. "RAUMAUSSTATTUNG" would have become a trendy hairdresser, a bar or a shop for limited edition sneakers.
eRiC

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Actually, there's another photo showing Neukolln -- the one showing furniture on the street, in front of an ivy-clad building. That's a private gay bar called the Kinski on Friedelstrasse in Neukolln.

Some streets in "Neubeca" (http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71172-0.html?tw=wn_index_2) are already looking pretty Prenzlauer Bergy, Eric!

[(Anonymous)]

"Pippi Longstrump" is Swedish.. what is she doing in Berlin?

[nato-dakke.livejournal.com]

this is "lAngstrumpF". totally unrelated.

Elterninitiativ Kinderladen Pipi Langstrumpf

[(Anonymous)]

That's the door of the "Kinderladen Pipi Langstrumpf" (alternative kindergarten founded and lead on the parent's own initiative) my son was in for four years. formerly it's been a bar and we transformed it into the most beautiful day-care of berlin! "Pipi Langstrumpf" is a popular character among the 'progressive parents fraction' as she stands of course for disobedience, feminism, anti-authority, anti-blabla etc...you could see her face on the back of a lot of squatter-rasta-punks leather jackets.
eRiC

Re: Elterninitiativ Kinderladen Pipi Langstrumpf

[(Anonymous)]

Growing up in America; my reddish hair, braids and attitude gave me the occasional name "Pippi Longstocking" living here and seeing in it without being dubed, I realize "Pippi" wasn't something to be made fun of, but something to be admired, strength, character and the willingness to be "different".

Anika and Tommy NEEDED Pippi, and so Pippi was there.. Anika and Tommy needed freedom and an example that children too have power, thus Pippi was there to lend her strength and friendship.

Its wonderful to think that Pippi lends herself to a "Progressive Parent's Fraction", absolutely wonderful, wonderful for the value of children, and the self worth of those outside of the established system..

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

I regret now that I didn't fight more for my class-trip to take aim at Berlin instead of Paris.

add to the list

[jozefpronek.livejournal.com]

Very nice café photo! (Although I fear that your article in Wired will just help accelerate the gentrification, or yuppification of Neubeca.)

Neubeca seems to be part of a list of (fantastic) areas that are not yet yuppified, yet are not poor areas anymore. The "overlapping" you mention in the Wired paper is the best they have.

Add to the list of areas that have many things in common with Neubeca: parts of Condesa in Mexico City, parts of the XXe in Paris, the poorer parts of Gràcia in Barcelona, La Macarena in Bogotá, parts around Paulina and the Ukrainian Village in Chicago, etc. Some of the pictures you mention could (mutatis mutandis) be in those other neighborhoods!

[smystery.livejournal.com]

I love that outdoor café picture too

Andy Landers (http://andylanders.com/)



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