Gotta come!

[imomus]

"My Berlin is over," says Craig Robinson (of Flip Flop Flyin fame) in a blog entry entitled Gotta Go.

"My Berlin is one where someone cutting me up on their bike makes me really angry; a Berlin where holding a door open for someone with a bicycle illicits a look of disgust not a smile or a thank you; and a Berlin where someone will be watering the plants on their balcony just as I'm walking underneath... I need to get out as soon as I can."

Of course we all experience these feelings of frustration from time to time. Except me. Except here. I fucking LOVE Berlin. I love it three years in. I love it every time I come back. I'm loving it this week, even despite the World Cup (the one thing Craig finds redeeming about the city: he calls it "the plaster over the wound"). I'm loving the banner hanging on the Oranienstrasse that says "Stupid football nationalists PISS OFF!"



The fact is, if you think Arsenal is a football team, Berlin only makes sense right now, in the grip of football mania. But if you know that Arsenal is in fact the art screen at the Potsdamer Platz showing the early films of Shohei Imamura this month, the "film poems" of Clive Holden, a "magical history tour", a "festival of festivals", and bits of the Tanz im August season, you're fine.

Business as usual in Berlin means not so much business, but tons of culture. But it's also got delights unmatched by either of the cities I've recently spent time in, London or New York. The clean air. The fact that you can ride your bike on the pavement. The forests and lakes just a short elevated train ride away. The Dahlem museums, which I visited last week. The Slow Life and the sobriety. The radical politics. The environmentalism. The loud, loud birdsong. The great theatre and visual art and design you can see here. The cutting edge international architecture. The excellent public transport. The trams! The fabulous zoo. The great coffee. Such high quality of life at such a low price! How do they do it?



A classic "God, I'm glad I'm in Berlin!" moment came the other day when I visited the new organic pasta cafe at 33 Mulackstrasse in Mitte. Leo Bettini is a South Tirolian-themed place (but in fact it's terribly "Mitte") with a deliciously cool interior (loose wooden slats around the kitchen, plain white tables and chairs) and staggeringly excellent food. Even the trip to the bathroom (with views out over a bamboo courtyard, and a delightfully clean, stark design) was great; I snapped photos, thinking how Japanese it felt. Japan with more space.

Or what about white beer for less than a euro a bottle? Apartments for less than 400 euros a month? One of which I yesterday signed a lease for! In fabulous Neubeca, with its aromatic Turkish market!

I'm sorry Craig walks around Berlin wondering "why does it always rain on me". My experience couldn't be more different. Berlin is my place in the sun. The rain is just an old lady watering her plants, Craig. And Arsenal is really a cinema.

Comments

[blackmoth.livejournal.com]

I've been tempted to move there ever since my first trips to Germany and posts like this aren't assisting, sir!

[alphacomp.livejournal.com]

As a lifelong New Yorker art student frustrated with the current state of the government and very curious about living outside of the US, I've been seriously considering moving to either Stockholm or Berlin and studying Graduate Design. I think that this entry has definitely provided me with an interesting perspective on the latter city. How popular is the English language there? I've been leaning towards Sweden due to the widespread English fluency there, but Berlin seems more fascinating.

Also, out of curiosity, have you used Max/MSP in your music before? I remember you writing about it, and I always associate Otto Spooky with it (simply because of the cover and that distorted voice on "Sempreverde"), but I don't remember you saying anything about using it. It seems like a very Momus-circa-2000s musicmaking environment.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I seem to hear English being spoken everywhere I go here. Some people actually just go into a store and start speaking English, and, rather amazingly, get answered in English. But many of the older Germans don't speak English at all. It's wise to learn at least rudimentary German, and essential if you plan to take advantage of the FREE HIGHER EDUCATION EVEN FOR FOREIGNERS that exists here. (Something else great that I didn't mention.)

I've never used MAX/MSP in my music. Don't speak that language.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

(Those two Mitte pasta women in the photo, for instance, speak perfect English. English language fluency correlates positively with the affluence of the area you're in, and the education level of the person you're talking to.)

[alphacomp.livejournal.com]

Ooh, free higher education is a definite plus.

The Sempreverde voice has now officially become a mystery to me as to its origin(as it should?). o_o

[martinish.livejournal.com]

Berlin's a wonderful city get around. A public transport system that's enjoyable to use - how unusual is that? And yes, cycling on the pavement and cheap good beer - very civilized. How about a Momus radio podcast thingy around Berlin?

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

And still people go to Paris instead.

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

How do the pedestrians and cyclists negotiate the shared pavement? Cyclists in Europe tend to drive faster and more agressively and ride heavier bikes than in Japan.

Aren't there specialized bicycle routes in Berlin such as in other cycle-friendly places like Amsterdam & Copenhagen?

Come to think of it I don't recall the places in Germany I've visited as being especially bicycle-friendly (small university towns excepted).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

The Sempreverde voice is a standard Mac voice, but messed around in a program called Eliza (an AI program that, oddly, allows you a lot of control over the old Mac voices, including removing all expression from them) and then pitch-shifted so that it sings. I used the same technique on "Handheld" on my Folktronic album. It takes a long time, but it has qualities you can't get any other way.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Your wish is my command (http://www.imomus.com/berlinramble.mp3)!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm just back from a cycling trip, so I can answer these questions!

How do the pedestrians and cyclists negotiate the shared pavement? Cyclists in Europe tend to drive faster and more agressively and ride heavier bikes than in Japan.

Germans do ride bikes quite aggressively. Many streets in Berlin have dedicated cycle lanes, usually on the pavement, but sometimes on the road. But bikes are all over the sidewalk too, and as a pedestrian you get used to looking behind before you make any sudden, unexpected movements. Apparently sidewalk riding is illegal, technically, here. But everyone tolerates it, and everyone does it. Being vigilant is a small price to pay for reduced pollution, increased health, and so on -- things all Germans care about.

As for negotiations, the cycle lanes usually follow the traffic system, ie you ride down the street on the right sidewalk, not the left one. You can "contraflow" in the bike lanes, but maybe one in 30 cyclists will glare at you or say something.

Germany is the only non-Japanese place I've been where you see the usual Japanese problem of limited parking space for bikes. There are just so many of them here.

Currently I'm not locking my bike, because I love just jumping off and on without having to fiddle with a lock. My bike is rundown and shitty, but by not bothering to lock I turn those qualities into advantages. So far it hasn't been stolen, but I don't think Berlin is quite as honest as Japan, where I once left a bike unlocked on the street for three months, and found it in exactly the same spot when I came back (with a police notice on it asking me not to leave it there).

[imomus.livejournal.com]

More pictures of the organic pasta place:

[martinish.livejournal.com]

What service!

I agree with you about the food. There is wonderful (and cheap) Turkish food in Berlin . And on the other hand - currywurst.

[larameau.livejournal.com]

gotta give it a try next time i come to berlin!
as an italian gourmet i'm always curious to check the quality of italian cuisine abroad. this place seems to be good, judging from the menu, plus the place is nice, cheap, and the two ladies have such a lovely smile!

berlin sehnsucht overcomes me...

[auto-nalle.livejournal.com]

sorry, this has nothing to do with anything really
but
since you're italian can you please tell me how to say "i've got ants in my hair" in italian so that it sounds credible?
i'm not quite sure. trying to learn the language but just started a while ago.

[(Anonymous)]

IKEA step stool... yes, and antler lamp.. are you certain they arn't Swedish?

[auto-nalle.livejournal.com]

stupid question:
what equipment do you use for making them podcasts and how it works andAll?
i'd like a new hobby like that
+ to record my grand mammy singing/reciting before she dies.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No distinction intended between pavement and sidewalk, that's just my transatlantic accent.

[scottbateman.livejournal.com]

While I'm currently still enjoying NYC a great deal, you're making Berlin sound really, really good--it may have to be my next big move at some point...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

We have Ikea here in Berlin, you know! In fact, I went there yesterday to get a couple of things for my new house. Here's proof:

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It would be great on price alone, even without all its other attractions. Let me give you an example. My rabbit has gnawed through my USB 2 cable. I need a new one. I'm in London. I go to Argos, a discount electronics store. The cable costs £9.99 (http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=4501&productId=223735), which at today's conversion rate is €14.43.

I decide to wait until I'm back in Berlin. Sure enough, today I find the same cable at Saturn (http://www.saturn.de/frontend/html/outlet/12/home.html?CFID=2682509&CFTOKEN=58824075) for €6.89. Less than half the price.

Now, I'm not an economist. I have no idea why this cable needs to cost twice as much in London. It's not as if German workers are paid less, or work in worse conditions, than British ones -- quite the contrary, they have better holidays, better health and pension arrangements, etc. It's not as if fuel costs more in the UK. I assume it's just that more people in the UK are prepared (and can afford, apparently) to be ripped off, that more people are marking stuff up and therefore others have to mark up, and also rent and storage are much more expensive in the UK because of the silly property market bubble that reigns there, where shitty housing is sold at astronomical prices.

But as long as British national sentiment makes Britain hold back from the Euro, British people won't know how badly they do on basic commodities; how absurdly they're overpaying for everything. Worse products and services, higher prices.

I'm actually doing an interview with the Financial Times about Berlin's extraordinary cheapness later in July, so if anyone wants to give me some economic tips as to why the differences in price are so extreme, I'd like to hear about it.

[nina-blomquist.livejournal.com]

haha

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I used to make them using my lo-res digital camera, my Fuji Finepix. It could store a lot of sound, and I could just drop the dozens of short sound files into iTunes, set a crossfade time of 2 seconds, and record the result using software called Wire Tap, which outputs an AIFF file iTunes can then turn back into an mp3 file. Now I tend to use my Sony Cybershot M1, which has better sound quality, but produces video files which can't crossfade in iTunes (mp4) and fill up the card quickly. My Wired podcasts are recorded in Garageband with a proper mic and mixer.

[martinish.livejournal.com]

Maybe people here in Britain shop like they drink. We don't like to leave gaps, we just chuck it down our necks. Argos, supermarkets etc. rely on the fact the people aren't going to go away and think about it, with a wallet full of credit cards why wait? Ikea will always be in profit so long as they keep a store open in Britain - the exits are full of dazed people wondering how they went in for a door mat and came out with £150 worth of candles.

[(Anonymous)]

yo Momus, I gots some questions for you. As a foreigner with no work visa (I assume), how long are you legally allowed to stay in Deutschland? Unless it's different for citizens of the EU. I think I'd be deported in about a week.