Overseas Courier Service
Apr. 25th, 2009 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusAt lunchtime I fly to Frankfurt, a city I don't know at all well. I suppose my stereotype of it is "the German city that does the money stuff". There's a reason Germany is still in the top four richest nations (it recently slipped from three to four, displaced, of course, by China), and that reason is not Berlin, a city about as good at making money as I am. Frankfurt and Munich are the really rich, business-savvy cities. Frankfurt even has a business district, with skyscrapers!
I'm in Frankfurt for three days to make with the art stuff at an event called Playing the City. No doubt the city will make an impression on me when I get there, but the first things that occur to me in advance -- being a person who loves Japan and the internet -- are:
1. Frankfurt, being a business-oriented city, has a significant population of Japanese people. I wonder what Japanese businesses there are?
2. Will my five star hotel make it easy or difficult for me to use wifi?
You might think that being booked into an expensive hotel by generous hosts would mean the near-certainty of excellent free wifi in every room, but my experience has indicated otherwise. In fact, expensive hotels tend to assume their guests are rich corporate travellers, and therefore scalp you for anything and everything, adding essentials like internet as extras. So even if your room is paid for, you get a hefty peripherals charge when you check out. Such is the price you pay for moving in the same circles as businessmen (it's a problem we Berliners don't have so much; we're all poor here).
Bearing in mind that wifi may be prohibitive in Frankfurt, I've done my research about Japanese infrastructure in advance. Though it doesn't have a whole Japanese district, like Dusseldorf, Frankfurt has a pink Japanese skyscraper and, nearby, a branch of department store Mitsukoshi, specialised, apparently, in Meissen porcelain. That doesn't interest me in the slightest, but I'd be happy if the store has -- like its London equivalent -- a Japanese bookstore with a good stock of Japanese magazines. There's nowhere in Berlin like that, and Hisae wants copies of Kurashi No Techo and Mayonaka. I'll be happy to find (either at Mitsukoshi or Japanese bookstore OCS) copies of Ku:nel, Studio Voice, Art It.
But really, isn't this whole thing absurd? Shopping for physical embodiments of culture expensively shipped around the world (OCS stands for "Overseas Courier Service") is so 1990s, but it means so much less now than it did ten years ago. The internet now streams live Japanese TV into our house (Hisae was just saying to me what a huge difference those digital streams -- illegal, by the way -- make to the experience of exile), iTunes app Nakatree Viewer lets me see the covers of new Japanese magazines the moment they hit the stands.
With all this stuff coming in over wifi, Berlin's lack of a Japanese bookstore with magazines is suddenly pretty irrelevant. And anyway, magazines are pretty much over; Art It recently announced that the current issue will be the last, and that the publication will be web-only from now on. I keep expecting to hear that Studio Voice will finish, too. A recent edition was about YouTube, but do I really need an expensive exported paper magazine in Japanese to tell me about YouTube? How am I supposed to click the URLs?
Culture is fulfilling its destiny, which is to become immaterial. Scarce cultural items -- as any businessman will tell you -- still command some cachet, so Japanese magazines in Germany seem like an exciting thing to track down. But increasingly these things have little to recommend them but their scarcity itself. The diminishing thrill of tracking them down is a throwback to how globalisation felt in the 90s, when we hoped to containerise everything and send it everywhere, believed that we could make microcosms of one place in another, and thought we could express ourselves through shopping.
The internet now does the work container globalisation used to do in the 90s, and the recession has put paid to our belief that shopping is a mode of self-expression. Some things still make travel worthwhile, though -- things that can't be funneled into the digital rush of the internet. Art performances, for instance.
You had to be there. I'd better get going, I have to containerise.
I'm in Frankfurt for three days to make with the art stuff at an event called Playing the City. No doubt the city will make an impression on me when I get there, but the first things that occur to me in advance -- being a person who loves Japan and the internet -- are:
1. Frankfurt, being a business-oriented city, has a significant population of Japanese people. I wonder what Japanese businesses there are?
2. Will my five star hotel make it easy or difficult for me to use wifi?
You might think that being booked into an expensive hotel by generous hosts would mean the near-certainty of excellent free wifi in every room, but my experience has indicated otherwise. In fact, expensive hotels tend to assume their guests are rich corporate travellers, and therefore scalp you for anything and everything, adding essentials like internet as extras. So even if your room is paid for, you get a hefty peripherals charge when you check out. Such is the price you pay for moving in the same circles as businessmen (it's a problem we Berliners don't have so much; we're all poor here).
Bearing in mind that wifi may be prohibitive in Frankfurt, I've done my research about Japanese infrastructure in advance. Though it doesn't have a whole Japanese district, like Dusseldorf, Frankfurt has a pink Japanese skyscraper and, nearby, a branch of department store Mitsukoshi, specialised, apparently, in Meissen porcelain. That doesn't interest me in the slightest, but I'd be happy if the store has -- like its London equivalent -- a Japanese bookstore with a good stock of Japanese magazines. There's nowhere in Berlin like that, and Hisae wants copies of Kurashi No Techo and Mayonaka. I'll be happy to find (either at Mitsukoshi or Japanese bookstore OCS) copies of Ku:nel, Studio Voice, Art It.But really, isn't this whole thing absurd? Shopping for physical embodiments of culture expensively shipped around the world (OCS stands for "Overseas Courier Service") is so 1990s, but it means so much less now than it did ten years ago. The internet now streams live Japanese TV into our house (Hisae was just saying to me what a huge difference those digital streams -- illegal, by the way -- make to the experience of exile), iTunes app Nakatree Viewer lets me see the covers of new Japanese magazines the moment they hit the stands.
With all this stuff coming in over wifi, Berlin's lack of a Japanese bookstore with magazines is suddenly pretty irrelevant. And anyway, magazines are pretty much over; Art It recently announced that the current issue will be the last, and that the publication will be web-only from now on. I keep expecting to hear that Studio Voice will finish, too. A recent edition was about YouTube, but do I really need an expensive exported paper magazine in Japanese to tell me about YouTube? How am I supposed to click the URLs?
Culture is fulfilling its destiny, which is to become immaterial. Scarce cultural items -- as any businessman will tell you -- still command some cachet, so Japanese magazines in Germany seem like an exciting thing to track down. But increasingly these things have little to recommend them but their scarcity itself. The diminishing thrill of tracking them down is a throwback to how globalisation felt in the 90s, when we hoped to containerise everything and send it everywhere, believed that we could make microcosms of one place in another, and thought we could express ourselves through shopping.
The internet now does the work container globalisation used to do in the 90s, and the recession has put paid to our belief that shopping is a mode of self-expression. Some things still make travel worthwhile, though -- things that can't be funneled into the digital rush of the internet. Art performances, for instance.
You had to be there. I'd better get going, I have to containerise.
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Such is the price you pay for moving in the same circles as businessmen (it's a problem we Berliners
Date: 2009-04-25 10:47 am (UTC)Granted, Berlin is the exception to the rule of German cities. But it would probably be the same if you were invited here to do something at, say, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they'd shack you up at some hotel nearby, and not a bad one it would be.
I'm sorry to peepee on the party, but I often struggle to understand how Berlin maintains it's art-myth: the idea that 'we Berliners' are all poor artists here. On a personal level the smock fits, and I understand it's about all that makes Berlin relevant to the outside world right now. Sure there are loads of projects spaces, shopfront studios, cheap'ish 'hip' bars etc, and of course the rents are relatively low. But a city would cease to function if it was made up only of poor artists (and no successful business). I guess it's convenient for many parties to maintain this Berlin myth, but when I hear this stuff aired with any seriousness I get this incredulous feeling, like I'm living in a different city to the speaker. Is s/he unable to see between the art lines? I'd love to live in this Berlin -all fun and cool and we are all poor but so damn sexy. I'm for sure even worse at making money than you, Momus. But I can see money here, there, and not nowhere, in Berlin. You don't strike this anon as unintelligent, so I'm thinking it more in jest or as aside than serious, and just to support your businessmen/5 star hotel thing here. Perhaps I want more to level things for those who read your blog but don't live here. I am just sick of people towing the party line when it comes to 'Berlin,' so please excuse me if I've missed the joke!
Please, 'Berliners' -go to Zehlendorf, Schöneberg, Prenzlauerberg, etc. There are some people with money! And they are as much -if not more- Berliners than you or I!
Apart from that.. have fun and good luck with your performance.
Re: 'Such is the price you pay for moving in the same circles as businessmen -
Date: 2009-04-25 10:49 am (UTC)aarg, the quote cut off in my heading above..
Why does Momus refuse to make and spend money?
Date: 2009-04-25 12:01 pm (UTC)I've never quite worked out how cheap = "more noble" or even "left wing". And it sure isn't "trendy". There are as many cliches in the flea market bars as there are in wine bars.
Re: Such is the price you pay for moving in the same circles as businessmen (it's a problem we Berli
Date: 2009-04-25 08:01 pm (UTC)noob.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-25 08:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-27 06:09 am (UTC)Boob. mm.
Noob operatics
Date: 2009-04-27 11:16 am (UTC)Another question- is there something wrong with being a 'noob' ?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-25 11:26 am (UTC)でもね、Ungaroのセーターやスカート、それからマイセンじゃなくて、ローゼンタールの花器をいくつか買った。
デュッセルドルフのほうが、少しだけおしゃれかも。
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-25 06:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-25 11:35 am (UTC)Probably in Paris.
No, London or Copenhargen.
Because my honey will stay there sometimes.
death wish?
Date: 2009-04-26 04:06 am (UTC)magazines are dead? the record industry is as good as dead? momus your the profit of cultural doom. whats left in life that is not digitalised in to oblivion.
whats wrong with tangible commodities and why dont the "kids" covet physical collections.where are the anal aspys of yore.
bring back stamp collecting not just philately.as Jarvis said or ought to have said "i want to see n' feel as well as hear"
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-26 10:01 am (UTC)Frankfurt feels very different from Berlin. You sense that the Romans were here, you see a combination of Romanesque architecture and boxy Modernist (mostly 1950s moderne) buildings with neon cursive script on their facades. Mitsukoshi seems to have closed down, but OCS and various Japanese eateries are doing business.
My tour at the Schirn starts at 3pm.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-26 03:10 pm (UTC)Mind you, there is really very little point going to the overseas branches of Mitsukoshi for a taste of Japan. They are stocked full of overseas luxury brands and goods that Japanese tourists want to buy as souvenirs of the country.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-26 10:28 pm (UTC)Would love to have a tab for Slender Sherbert's version of "The Guitar Lesson"
Thanks for the music and for the daily CO insight Nick.
Brian.
tabbing heart stabbing
Date: 2009-04-27 02:08 am (UTC)regards
the lunatic engineer.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-27 12:14 pm (UTC).....but I digress. Having spent time in both cities, I'm with momus on this one.
Frankfurt always seemed more orientated towards the business community, or perhaps reflected its prescence more. Part of the problem is (with the exception of the marvellous station) the hideous city centre / kaiserstr. area, with monotonous buildings and precincts and department stores.
To be fair, Berlin's most obvious monument to the 'business' world, the Potzdamer platz area, I also dislike perhaps for a different reason; it is somehow artificial and in view of the historical background, a missed opportunity with its out of place sony building, etc. Howvever, at least the ku'damm (IMHO!) has a bit more variety, and the Alexplatz more 'space'.
I know the above is not exactly a rigorous assessment, but i haven't time to do much more, this entry caught me preparing from a performance tomorrow night. I'm equally sure there'll be plenty of people ready to 'correct' my impressions - I'm all ears!