Better to Light a Candle than Curse the Darkness

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 the Vietnam War and still causing genetic deformities in kids born today.  Why am I telling you this?  Because this Saturday, there's a Stop Monsanto demo at Neptunbrunnen (the big fountain next to the TV tower).

Speakers from Greenpeace and more will highlight acts of corporate (ir)responsibility by Monsanto,  which has been complicit in such environmental horrors as irreversible PCB pollution and mass bee die-offs.  Basically, if Monsanto and the rest of the Big Six companies were to meet with a very unfortunate, globally-coordinated incident which shut down all of their head offices, laboratories and factories, the lifespan on every living thing on Earth could actually rise overnight. (Note: I would not condone nor participate in the planning and execution of such an incident, however cool it may sound).  A more legal course of action is simply to boycott the Big Six.

For those of you who are interested, here are some of their more well known brands:

Bayer - Pharmaceuticals
BASF - Chemicals
Roundup - Garden Pesticide
Nutrasweet and Equal artificial sweeteners.
Aspartame, Saccharin and Simplesse
DuPont - Teflon, Lycra, Kevlar, Nomex
Non-organic milk contains Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone
Battery-farmed cattle eat Monsanto's GM Soybeans
American and Argentinian-source Soybean products - owned by Monsanto

If keeping track of all those products makes your head spin though, then you can always download this app for Android or I-Phone which scans your supermarket products.  It tells you whether the product you're about to buy is made by MonSatanCo or not.  Too bad you can't also scan your smartphone to find out whether it's eco-friendly too (in short, the answer is 'no').

Speaking of death, Danse Macabre is a two-day ball for Berlin's 'Black No. 1' Belles that is taking place at the Berlin Ballhaus this weekend.  It includes a Rock Talk on October 11, and a vampy variety show (October 12) and, of course, a baroque ball this Saturday.  Dress up or they'll chuck you in the dungeon of the legendary Ballhaus.  If you're lucky.

 Starting tomorrow is the Street Art Clash at YAAM, featuring works by the artist who did the mural to your right and many, many more. 

YAAM is perhaps the only underground club on the Spree that can still legitimately claim the 'subcultural' mantel, so the artists on display will be heavy-hitters that have recently made a splash in the city's spraycan scene.  On until October 13th, always assuming that YAAM survives that long.

If all this gloom and doom is getting a bit too much, then head to the Madhaus English comedy night at Brunnen 70 this Thursday night.  Hosted by the insanely-fun (and funny) Fish Bowl comedy crew, Madhaus will serve up live acts, market stalls, free booze, a pirate ship and plenty of unhinged laughter.  By the time you leave, you'll be too giddy to care if the world is ending or not. Especially if you mark your attendance on the Facebook page; if you do this, they'll give you a free shot!

If you are organizing, or have heard of, a left-wing or underground  event which you would like listed on this blog, send us an email with all the details.