tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post116585608009058110..comments2021-10-05T19:44:46.905+02:00Comments on BerlinBites: So Why Not Another One?Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-10913362907119924292006-12-16T19:51:00.000+01:002006-12-16T19:51:00.000+01:00How come I've changed from Bowleserised to Anonymo...How come I've changed from Bowleserised to Anonymous? Fecking beta!Bowleserisedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02974472204722759129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166206240316822222006-12-15T19:10:00.000+01:002006-12-15T19:10:00.000+01:00Narrowback...thanks for saving me from the label "...Narrowback...thanks for saving me from the label "nostalgia." I can think of no other city with a more fascinating--or horrifying--history that is not ignored or glossed over or sanitized. It may be romanticized a bit by Isherwood fans and Cold War junkies (myself included) but no one ever calls it pretty, or nice, or charming. It's still raw enough for all our worst and best fantasies...and realities.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166156894084863252006-12-15T05:28:00.000+01:002006-12-15T05:28:00.000+01:00Olaf...tho' Berlin had always been on my radar as ...Olaf...tho' Berlin had always been on my radar as one of THE places I wanted to visitI didn't make it there until my 40's...yet I found it even more inteersting & intriguing than I had ever imagined. maybe one could consider me as a "control group" with perceptions unaltered by recollections of a misspent youth in BerlinAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166129970354388592006-12-14T21:59:00.000+01:002006-12-14T21:59:00.000+01:00Ed and Olivier, I might agree that I was bemoaning...Ed and Olivier, I might agree that I was bemoaning lost youth if I didn't find that being thirty years older made me appreciate Berlin even more. And I don't miss my youth--my life has improved with every decade and I was a dumbshit of the first order in my 20s. Frankly, I'm embarrassed about my youth.<BR/><BR/>Nope, sorry, no nostalgia here. Life's never been better than it is now. Berlin, to me, is the FUTURE!<BR/>(I know that's gonna make Ed chortle.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166125555483836242006-12-14T20:45:00.000+01:002006-12-14T20:45:00.000+01:00Bowleserised...your comment about provoking emotio...Bowleserised...your comment about provoking emotion is one of the points about the stolpersteinen. Art is intended to provoke a reaction in some form or manner. <BR/><BR/>When I've been on photo shoots in the Hackescher Markt area I've found that even my act of stopping to photogragh one then sparks the interest of other passer by (tourists in most cases) to lok and then ponder what I was shooting a picture of.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166106540998561532006-12-14T15:29:00.000+01:002006-12-14T15:29:00.000+01:00Hallo Ed. Appreciate the take on Berlin. Reminds...Hallo Ed. Appreciate the take on Berlin. Reminds me very much of how i felt watching SanFranDisco destroyed by the internet bubble and then the burst. Been living near Köln for five years, and haven't yet gotten to Berlin. Will change that soon. May you be washed with all waters.The Global Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14569639774506230884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166102428744235262006-12-14T14:20:00.000+01:002006-12-14T14:20:00.000+01:00Olaf, I think Olivier may have hit on, err, an inc...Olaf, I think Olivier may have hit on, err, an inconvenient truth.Ed Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17805932361842578943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166095199658121382006-12-14T12:19:00.000+01:002006-12-14T12:19:00.000+01:00oh don't get me wrong, i love the Stolpersteine. ...oh don't get me wrong, i love the Stolpersteine. and how they sit like gold teeth in the broken and bleeding mouth of the streets. it is this discomfort that is an element of the background noise of eastern europe in general (and berlin in particular). each one is an invitation to reflect on man's ability to engage in unimaginable cruelties to his fellow man. or perhaps they are only too imaginable... as far as the weather goes, all bets are off really. given the onrushing climate change, we should soon have quite the balmy city here by the Spree. Perhaps all those Strandbads were on to something!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166085843151563362006-12-14T09:44:00.000+01:002006-12-14T09:44:00.000+01:00What, Munich won't have the brass cobblestones bec...What, Munich won't have the brass cobblestones because they think it would be disrespectful to tread on the dead?<BR/><BR/>Given that other cities in Germany have them, methinks the Bavarians protest too much...<BR/><BR/><BR/>Not that I don't worry about them getting smeared in dog shit. <BR/><BR/>Walking on them – by accident, then realising what you've done – could be argued to be a poignant memorial in itself, no? Artists like to provoke emotion. I suppose you could say that by accidentally walking over a memorial and feeling guilty you're being made to feel in some way complicit with those who *would* forget. And that's a lesson in itself?<BR/><BR/>Does that make sense? I'm not very articulate just now because still ill.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166075232175957952006-12-14T06:47:00.000+01:002006-12-14T06:47:00.000+01:00Ah Olaf, you're not in love with Berlin but with y...Ah Olaf, you're not in love with Berlin but with your youth and nothing can bring that back!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166071071977081622006-12-14T05:37:00.000+01:002006-12-14T05:37:00.000+01:00Ed, Olaf...have you forgotten such places in the S...Ed, Olaf...have you forgotten such places in the States as my current city of residence Chicago, the Tug Hill plateau in Upstate NY, or the UP of Michigan?...I've been to Berlin in December and January and while the short amount of daylight does have its adverse effects the weather isn't all that bad...in fact during my visit last January it was actually warmer in Berlin that it was back in ChicagoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166046103154169602006-12-13T22:41:00.000+01:002006-12-13T22:41:00.000+01:00Gawd, how I remember those short, dim winter days....Gawd, how I remember those short, dim winter days. The only times it wasn't drizzling and dark, the temperature dropped into the teens and the sun in the blue, blue sky was just ironic punishment--it gave not a watt of radiant warmth. When it managed to snow, it was beautiful, though...for a day. And, of course, given the dreadful, damp cold all winter, every shop and restaurant was overheated so that you could never strip off enough to be comfortable. Even though I now live at 7000 feet, I've never been colder than those years in Berlin.<BR/><BR/>Until I spent three weeks in winter in Stockholm in 1998. Good god! No wonder the Swedes are so stoic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166034827994604852006-12-13T19:33:00.000+01:002006-12-13T19:33:00.000+01:00Actually, Olaf, there are fewer and fewer scars; t...Actually, Olaf, there are fewer and fewer scars; the bullet holes in the buildings have been surgically excised, and this place would gentrify in a hurry if there were any money around. But there isn't, so Mike's observation is acute. <BR/><BR/>But you <I>know</I> you're irrational if you want to come back here at this time of year. (I had to pause to blow my nose in the middle of writing that sentence...)Ed Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17805932361842578943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166034444466835142006-12-13T19:27:00.000+01:002006-12-13T19:27:00.000+01:00A city of four million with the history that Berli...A city of four million with the history that Berlin has can't ever be compressed to simply fit the hype-machines of commoditized, checklist-style, upscale travel. I just wander around when I'm there, and there's always something to stumble into that while not hip! edgy! is nonetheless worthwhile and memorable. And everything in Berlin seems accessible to an ordinary schmoe like me, unlike the feeling I get in some other big cities. Compared to the desolate strip-malled, stucco-fucko wasteland that the West here in the US is becoming, Berlin is wonderfully complex and strange. It's the real thing--all its scars are showing, and even the Sony Centre can't cover them up.<BR/><BR/>I gotta stop thinking about Berlin. I'm so desperate to get back that I may do something irrational.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166032901196884832006-12-13T19:01:00.000+01:002006-12-13T19:01:00.000+01:00Ed, I couldn't help but notice that you came back ...Ed, I couldn't help but notice that you came back from New York the other month grumbling it was nothing but a playground for the rich. That might explain why the Times thinks Berlin is "like New York in the '80s." Wrong, but that's their perspective: Berlin is Hip and Edgy because American cities are even more gentrified.Michael Scott Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07889076277422484313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166030496526005682006-12-13T18:21:00.000+01:002006-12-13T18:21:00.000+01:00when I first, literally, stumbled across the stoli...when I first, literally, stumbled across the stolipersteinen they piqued my curiosity. In a short period of time I got myself up to speed regarding the concept, artist and history. <BR/><BR/>IIRC it is exactly william thirteen's reservations about "trodding on the dead" that's the basis for the prohibition in Munich. While I can't argue against that perspective I still think its a exceedingly unique and poignant means of memorializing those who would otherwise be generally unknown or to paraphrase Stalin "a statistic". <BR/><BR/>I'm with Olaf...there always has been, is and will be a lot more to Berlin than the "hip! edgy!" tripe cranked out by hack travel writersAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166029432304545572006-12-13T18:03:00.000+01:002006-12-13T18:03:00.000+01:00Ed, Olaf: Tacheles is exactly what I was thinking ...Ed, Olaf: Tacheles is exactly what I was thinking when Ed mentioned speculators buying up all the cool places. That place was so great only four years ago, shortly after I arrived in the city, even. (I was at that Veirs show too, btw--with my GF, the fan--and I have to say that audience was a far cry from the Tacheles crowd of yesteryear (well, 1999 yester). More adoring Mitte kids than the angsty squatting undergrounders of yesteryear, also a dying breed.)<BR/><BR/>It's funny though, I always said I would leave Berlin as soon as I got bored and I couldn't understand the Berliners who were always bellyaching about it being better in the mid Nineties, late Eighties, whatever.<BR/><BR/>I think it does have a lot to do with time and place and how you position yourself in the Berlin Bohemian promise (fantasy?) which I don't think has actually changed that much since the 20s even if the city itself has. I guess that's what public relations companies are for. Or Wowi jabbering on about poor-but-sexy and the like.<BR/><BR/>The fun is still here to be had, though, I have no doubt about that. Finding it gets harder sometimes when the new is always turning into the old. Is that a metaphor for life? (OK, I have to stop now before this nostalgio-philosophizing gets out of control.)<BR/><BR/>Ed, how often do you give these tours? Averse to any come-alongs?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166010636425810432006-12-13T12:50:00.000+01:002006-12-13T12:50:00.000+01:00“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock ...“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,<BR/>And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Romans 9:33<BR/><BR/>Last year I was in a small town outside Frankfurt for business with a colleague from Israel. It was his first trip to the Fatherland and he was understandably a bit nervous. He was somewhat reassured after I showed him a few Stolpersteine and we had dinner at a bad Thai restaurant. I myself am a bit uneasy with them since trodding on the dead is less than respectful where i come from.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1166008283748088922006-12-13T12:11:00.000+01:002006-12-13T12:11:00.000+01:00Lovely response, Olaf. But no, there aren't any mi...Lovely response, Olaf. But no, there aren't any millionaires who want to fund an English-language magazine here. Germans don't invest. At all. That project took three years out of my life and at the end we had one guy who was willing to invest 35,000 Marks as long as we didn't use it to pay writers. And then he decided against it. <BR/><BR/>And narrowback, you're right: those are Stolperstein. I'd been calling them Klopfenstein, but that's the right word. Product of a guy who's funding it all himself, all over Germany. He's banned in Munich, though. Figures.Ed Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17805932361842578943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1165984472939362152006-12-13T05:34:00.000+01:002006-12-13T05:34:00.000+01:00loved the "counter hype" story & my "Guided tour o...loved the "counter hype" story & my "Guided tour of Berlin" is not disimilar from yours...I love taking/guiding friends who want to see Hip! Edgy! Berlin! on my favortie paths through the city.<BR/><BR/>One of those paths is the review of what I belive are called "Stolpersteinen" - those brass plaques - in your neck of the woods...<BR/><BR/>what really struck me was your citation of the juxtaposition of the "missing house" with the deportation memorial on Gross Hamburgstrasse... I'd been there several times but that exact aspect had not struck me beforeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1165979297984507852006-12-13T04:08:00.000+01:002006-12-13T04:08:00.000+01:00First of all, Ed, I found this post the most poeti...First of all, Ed, I found this post the most poetic of any I have read by you--thank you. Berlin may not be the superlative in many categories (it does have more bridges than Amsterdam in addition to having the most greenspace), and it may have a plenty of faults, but a lot of us are in love with it.<BR/><BR/>For me, it's because I'm a Cold War junkie, and I spent my formative years there in the 1970s as a member of the USAF 6912th and then as a poor expatriate civilian living in a coal-heated apartment in Schoeneberg, never ever planning on returning to the States. Poverty and marginalization finally chased me back to education and employment, but Berlin was the armature around which my life turned. That's what happens when you come of age in a city.<BR/><BR/>Oh crap, I'm sounding positively sentimental and totally uncool.<BR/><BR/>Well, the spell was not broken when I returned in 2005, and now I'm committed to at least visiting Berlin regularly, and maybe living there again. It's the only place that has ever really fascinated me while still feeling like home.<BR/><BR/>By the way, my wife and I went to Tacheles (mentioned in the NYT piece) to see Laura Veirs in a clubspace (Cafe Zapata) that was jammed to the gills and a freaking fire hazard. I'm too old for that scene, but I have to confess to liking Ms. Veirs music, even if we only lasted part way through the evening. Chief among my disappointments was that Berlin audiences used to really punish artists if they didn't meet expectations, and I thought that this crowd was awfully forgiving of Ms. Veirs. "What happened to you" I asked a young Berliner as we were leaving. He just shrugged.<BR/><BR/>Okay, so it's not so hip! edgy! anymore, and certainly wasn't three decades ago. But it's not like anywhere else, even with the wall coming down, the capital moving in, the economy circling the drain, and stupid NY Times bits recycled annually that are the product of writers who have never had a city break their hip shrunken hearts. <BR/><BR/>I'll never be able to give it up. Corny? Yes, but Berlin bleibt doch Berlin. Immer.<BR/><BR/>Jeez, Ed. I wish I knew some idiot millionaire who could stake a real magazine for the city. Any benefactors out there?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1165942056144656982006-12-12T17:47:00.000+01:002006-12-12T17:47:00.000+01:00oh i certainly enjoy reading well written, insight...oh i certainly enjoy reading well written, insightful pieces - but i can do that online as well as off. jonl - thanks for the tip, will update the string. meanwhile i gave up taking opium so i could have sex with the neighbors (or landlords or whoever)! ...of course the problem there is that they then know exactly where you live...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1165935556803185212006-12-12T15:59:00.000+01:002006-12-12T15:59:00.000+01:00William, yes and no. There's a long tradition of t...William, yes and no. There's a long tradition of travel writing which isn't just about sharing tips, although that would be at the heart of the magazine I was envisioning. It's also about reading well-written, insightful pieces about places you'll almost certainly never visit. About the pleasure of reading as much as the pleasure of travel, if you will. And I don't think the internet's ever going to replace that. <BR/><BR/>As for Isherwood, I just learned that the plaque on the house near Nollendorfplatz is actually on the wrong house: it should be on the one next door. Can't they do <I>anything</I> right here?Ed Wardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17805932361842578943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1165931018516181662006-12-12T14:43:00.000+01:002006-12-12T14:43:00.000+01:00Second what Marie said.In fact, the syndication fe...Second what Marie said.<BR/><BR/>In fact, the syndication feed at Weblogsky.com hasn't been updated since August, when it was changed to read "Berlin bites has moved, and so has its RSS feed, which is now located at http://berlinbites.blogspot.com/rss/berlinbites.xml"<BR/><BR/>I just moved weblogsky.com to a different server, and figured by now everybody had updated, so I didn't move that pointer. ~ jonl, Ed's pal and occasional webmasterJon Lebkowskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7052429.post-1165927840758963562006-12-12T13:50:00.000+01:002006-12-12T13:50:00.000+01:00Ed, quite right. I'm so bored of Berlin pretending...Ed, quite right. I'm so bored of Berlin pretending that the Isherwood-thing is alive and well. To my amazement, my brother-in-law, the most conservative man under 110 in the UK, started singing Berlin's isherwoodian praises to me on a recent UK trip and imagined I spent my whole life taking opium and having sex with the neighbours etc. etc. And the hip-and-trendy thing... I'm sure Ljubljana has hip and groovy bars too. It's not newsworthy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com