Unscene Berlin

What a shame that Halloween falls on a Thursday this year.  Because it's right in the middle of the week, hardly any venues are doing silly theme parties.  That means I can't go overboard making naff puns about them like I've done in years gone by.   Actually, most of this week's party picks fall on Day of the Dead so they mostly have a deadly-serious tone to them: Gegen's Death party, Slaughterhouse, Burn the Machine and Dia de los Muertos.  Gegen Death. Kit Kat Club, Friday Nov. 2nd The name says it all: this month's Gegen will take Berlin back to the roots of Halloween by hosting a party on All Saint's night.  It's the moment in the season when everything in nature is both living and dead: live trees are shedding their leaves, living crops are getting the chop for harvest, and live Berliners bar-hopping and clubbing although their brains have shut down for winter; trawling the streets like so many trick-or-treaters in a candy-induced daze....

The Weird An increasing number of street artists in Berlin (and worldwide) seem to be putting up designs that are well executed and eye catching, but strangely lacking in meaning.  I'm not really sure why, but I find this unsettling.  Same goes for the many streetart prints that I have seen described as 'a piece for your living room' by decor websites and artists, alike.  Isn't streetart supposed to speak to the world ?  Or is it just there to make the world look more interesting?  I think that the answer is 'both'.  In either case, the living room is the wrong place for it. XOOOOX The relevance of streetart lies not in its aesthetic but in its ability to speak to passers-by via its aesthetic (and by passers-by I mean regular people too, not just art critics).  To do that, it should say something that 'everybody knows' but  they have never seen written or illustrated anywhere else.  Scrawling that view on the outside, underside or...

Members of the Big Six assembling outside of the Bundestag to plan our demise.  Just kidding: it's actually the Festival of Lights The skies are grey but colourful events are falling on us like the trees' leaves and brightening the streets of Berlin.  We'll start with the obvious one, the Festival of Lights , a two-week celebration of, well, lights.  It may be a cynical attempt to draw tourists to Berlin for a last minute cash-boost before winter sets in... but, well, it's free .  And it can be quite pretty, as well.  You may not want to say that in front of the Berghain bouncers, though; your street cred will go down the tubes. Check out the website on the link above for a listing of light shows across the city.  On until October 20th. Monsanto is a company that would like to see the world without any leaves, even if they're really pretty autumn leaves.  They are the proud manufacturers of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, widely used during t...