Color in a Plattenbau world part II
Posted: January 29, 2011 Filed under: Eggs, Lost in Berlin | Tags: Berlin, culture shock, discrimination, Ossis and Wessis, Plattenbau, travel writing 1 Comment »
Give an Ossi paint….and watch out, boy. Geez.
I have a theory…and let me say first, the theory is pretty offensive, really–it belittles the struggle of hundreds of thousands oppressed by secret police and living behind a barbed-wire and machinegun-rife wall finally saying, enough is enough, and standing up to fight for their human rights and taking the chance to tell the government to go fuck itself to the point of toppling said corrupt government, and that nearly bloodlessly–but hey, what theory doesn’t piss someone off, right? Read the rest of this entry »
Like this:
Spray paint and puddles
Posted: January 26, 2011 Filed under: Lost in Berlin | Tags: Berlin, Graffiti, photos Leave a comment »
Perhaps I’m a bit touched…but I could spend like a day staring at, say…one windowcill.
Let alone a graffitied and dripping ping-pong table.
The tricky part is getting one billionth of the texture to fit in my dumb camera.
Pictures are so flat.
Two dimensional…really.
The wet weather seems to add depth to everything.
I was already digging on the added feel it gives to the stones and gravel…and then I noticed the reflections falling into the distance.
Off in la la photoland.
I didn’t come to again until my camera beeped to say it was full. Read the rest of this entry »
Sunday’s Lost and Found
Posted: January 23, 2011 Filed under: Lost in Berlin | Tags: Berlin, culture shock, dead rats, Graffiti, photos 1 Comment »Here’s a few things I found this strange Sunday, just lying around Berlin. Good I always carry a camera.
The day started out like the opening pages of Camus’s The Plague. I walked down the stairs leaving the apartment and almost tripped over a dead rat. A way to start out the day, that. Nothing else could faze me. Not even the dog shit. Read the rest of this entry »
Color in a Plattenbau world
Posted: January 20, 2011 Filed under: Eggs, Lost in Berlin | Tags: Berlin, culture shock, GDR, German Democratic Republic, Ossis and Wessis Leave a comment »The word isn’t found in the Germany dictionary I currently possess, and I have met numerous West Germans unfamiliar with the term… yet, ask any Ossi and they will know.
Most people (most Westerners, Ossis don’t count as real people, at least according to Pop culture) if familiar with what they are, harbor unfavorable opinions of the cheaply made, usually very square and formerly very drab blocks of habitable concrete.
Plattenbau (roughly, ‘flat-building’) is the name for the pre-fab apartment houses typical to the ex-Warsaw Pact countries.
They are derided by comedians and laughed at by tourists, and seen as a sort of metaphor of the cheap and crumbling GDR communism.
Indeed, “Plattenbau” is rarely said lovingly. Read the rest of this entry »
Washing last year’s dirt away
Posted: January 17, 2011 Filed under: Lost in Berlin | Tags: Berlin, Friedrichshain, Karl Marx Allee, photos Leave a comment »Last week, rain and above zero temperature came to Berlin, and the great amount of nasty-by-now snow was melted in a great rush that actually caused flooding all accross Germany, Poland and other countries.
So we went for a walk. It was muddy and still slick. Piles of the New Year’s filth was now exposed and fireworks, bottles, cups stuck frozen in the ice or lay about in soggy mounds.
Thought I’d take a few black and whites with all the texture out there.
Around our neighborhood in Friedrichshain, if your asking. Volkspark and the Karl Marx alley. A few from the Butzow neighborhood across over in Prenzlauerberg, on our walk to a favorite Asian grocery store. Bought some veggies and spices, and a notebook. They got everything. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Trashy-hip’ Tempelhof Airport
Posted: January 17, 2011 Filed under: Eggs | Tags: Berlin, Berlin Airlift, Operation Vittles, photos, Tempelhof 1 Comment »Every investor in the city wants a piece of Templehof, if they could get it. Alas, the rather large area, pretty much smack dab in the middle of the city, may never be touched.
Many many Berliners have express the opinion the area should be left as it is: A giant pubic park. Perhaps the word ”park” is a bit flattering. It’s a derelict space with a couple tennis courts and a path or two.
There is a good argument for leaving at least something of the field. Operation Vittles among other things.
The Hall is already a protected historic building, built by the Nazis and an interesting example of their spank-me modernist architecture, if you’re into that sort of thing. But what about the runways and open space? Slides follow below. Read the rest of this entry »
The dangers of unguarded wandering
Posted: January 16, 2011 Filed under: Eggs | Tags: Berlin, discrimination, mosques in Germany, photos, racism, Thilo Sarrazin Leave a comment »What happened is not uncommon in Berlin. It was my fault, really, wandering aimlessly as I was.
Should have been more careful.
I had read about these places in the newspaper, had been warned by friends, and there I was. In that moment…confronted by the situation, I did what any good American would do.
I switched my camera to automatic, gritted my teeth and ran up the middle.
Regardless of my efforts, I was instantly overwhelmed. Brutal. Mugged by a mosque, I was. A slide show follows. Read the rest of this entry »
